Chris' Collection :: Newspaper Strip Art

Eppo Doeve (1907-1981) - Het Mannetje Bagatel | The Little Man Bagatelle No. 83 Comic Strip Original Art (Elseviers Weekblad, 1946)

Artists: Eppo Doeve (All) , Joseph Ferdinand Doeve (All) , Bertus Aafjes (Writer)

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Eppo Doeve (1907-1981) - Het Mannetje Bagatel | The Little Man Bagatelle No. 83 Comic Strip Original Art (Elseviers Weekblad, 1946) Comic Art

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Artwork Details

Title:	Eppo Doeve (1907-1981) - Het Mannetje Bagatel \| The Little Man Bagatelle No. 83 Comic Strip Original Art (Elseviers Weekblad, 1946)
Artist:	Eppo Doeve (All)
Artist:	Joseph Ferdinand Doeve (All)
Artist:	Bertus Aafjes (Writer)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Comic Strip
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	70
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	1
Added to Site:	2/28/2025
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Eppo Doeve (1907-1981) - Het Mannetje Bagatel | The Little Man Bagatelle No. 83 Comic Strip Original Art, Elseviers Weekblad 1946, Pen And Ink With Non-Photo Blue On Illustration Board, 14 1/4 x 4 3/8 Inches. Copyright Joseph Ferdinand Doeve Estate.

Joseph Ferdinand Doeve was born in 1907 in Bandung, Indonesia, which was still a Dutch colony at the time. He was the son of a civil servant. Both Doeve's parents were Dutch, but of multiracial descent. He studied at the Catholic School of the Ursuline Sisters and afterwards studied argonomy at the Landbouwhoogeschool in Wageningen in the Netherlands. Even at a young age, Doeve showed artistic promise and was once asked to design a film poster for a local theater in Bandung. Yet he didn't consider his graphic talent all that exceptional and instead dreamed of becoming a tea planter.

After a long journey, Doeve arrived in the Netherlands where he made several illustrations for the student magazine of the Wagenische Studentencorps. Unfortunately the Wall Street stock market crashed in 1929, resulting in a global economic crisis. The Great Depression also caused the collapse of the Indonesian tea market, which completely changed Doeve's future. Since he liked the Netherlands, he wanted to be able to stay there and choose for a graphic career instead. He'd already earned some income at the Amsterdam advertising bureau De la Mar and kept busy illustrating advertisements for them.

In 1933, Doeve became a political cartoonist for the magazine De Groene Amsterdammer. After three years, he moved to The Haagsche Post where he worked as a freelance artist. He published illustrations in De Radiobode, the official magazine of the Dutch radio broadcasting company AVRO. One of his colleagues there was Eelco ten Harmsen van der Beek, from whom he learned a lot of valuable skills. Doeve was an illustrator for 'Paul van Vlaanderen' serials, alternating with Henk Gijsbers and Henk Albers. His graphic work also appeared in Het Handelsblad and De Telegraaf, and after World War II in Vrij Nederland too. His longest association was with Elseviers Weekblad (later Elsevier magazine), for which he made cartoons from 1946 until his death in 1983.

Doeve designed murals, theatrical sets and costumes, stamps, portraits, paintings and sculptures. He made beautiful advertisement posters for various companies. Two of the most famous were the waiter carrying a plate with Heineken beer and the penguins promoting the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam. Doeve's drawings livened up the covers of many pocket novels published by Prisma.

Yet most Dutch people in the 1950s knew him best for designing a new set of paper bills. Each bank note sported the head of a famous person from Dutch history, like Hugo De Groot (10 guilders), Herman Boerhaave (20 guilders), Christiaan Huygens (25 guilders), Desiderius Erasmus (100 guilders), and Rembrandt van Rijn (1000 guilders). Later in life, Doeve even designed parodies of these bills, depicting the head of soccer icon Johan Cruyff or Dutch folklore character Zwarte Piet. Doeve was an outstanding graphic talent, despite never having been to the art academy. He was ambidextrous and could even draw upside down, if necessary. Doeve received so much assignments that he never had to worry about money. The only downside was that he mostly worked for other people, rather than create something out of his own free will.

Doeve ventured in comics too, twice illustrating narratives by famous Dutch novelist and poet Bertus Aafjes. In 1946, their comic strip 'Het Mannetje Bagatel', a fairy tale in comics format. appeared in De Volkskrant. It ran from 4 June until 7 October 1940 (from 17 September onwards under the title 'Bagatel's Kinder-cabaret'). Doeve and Aafjes returned to the comics medium fourteen years later with 'Kleine Isar, de Vierde Koning' (1962) in Elseviers Weekblad. 'Kleine Isar' was a Christmas comic revolving around Isar, the fourth king never mentioned in the story about The Three Kings. While Balthasar, Melchior and Caspar are in time to find the newborn baby Jesus Isar always arrives too late at each important event, much to his frustration. Doeve wasn't the only comic artist Aafjes wrote scripts for. In 1948, he also collaborated with Piet Worm. Book publications of 'Kleine Isar' have appeared in 1963 and 1979. It also appeared in the Belgian comic magazine Ohee (issues 36-37, 1963) and ran in Samedi Jeunesse under the title 'Isar - Le Petit Roi Mage' (1964).

By appearing on radio, television and in printed media, Eppo Doeve was one of the more recognizable graphic artists to the general Dutch public at the time. He was frequently invited to make drawings during live broadcasts of TV game shows like 'Telemimiek', 'E�n van de Acht' and 'Sterallures'. Together with writer Alexander Pola (part of the team of the satirical comedy show 'Farce Majeure'), Doeve appeared in episodes of the NCRV news shows 'Attentie' (1957-1968) and 'Hier en Nu' (196

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	Chris' Collection Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	May 2005
Last Login:	September 2025
Ebay Id:	nthman1
Country:	UNITED STATES
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Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005

1 - Posted on 2/28/2025

Eppo gives us a hearty Opa! moment to bring good luck.

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