Artiesten Winterfeest

Jan Sluijters won the Prix de Rome in 1904 and travelled to Italy and Spain. Returning via France, he saw the work of the Fauves in Paris. This made a great impression on him and supposedly inspired his preference for bright, non-realistic colours. This poster exuberantly announces an artists’ winter festival, in colourful strokes of paint around a woman’s naked body. The poster has an erotic charge, which is reinforced by the mask and the predominance of red. Sluijters painted many portraits and his daring pictures of women often caused a stir. He drew, illustrated, designed posters and postage stamps and made cartoons. When he died in 1957, he was laid out in the Stedelijk Museum, from where he was taken for burial. He had exhibited his work in the museum on many occasions.