Caricatures

The Art of Hand-Colouring

19th Century caricatures and antiquarian prints

While in Scotland Jolanda van Belzen studied under Colin Robertson, from Dalkeith near Edinburgh, who gave her a solid grounding in the art and craft of hand-colouring: how to prepare old papers to accept dyes, unique characteristics of various pigments and mediums, establishing atmosphere and period authenticity through the choice of colours, shadow detailing, and many other aspects involved with professional hand-colouring.

In the long gone days before colour printing techniques were invented, much of this was common practice, but the art seems to have almost died out.

Jolanda then applied the art of hand-colouring (using Windsor & Newton water colours exclusively) to enhance the illustrative and esthetic appeal of old caricatures, old maps, and townscapes prints.

Over the years, Jolanda worked on hundreds and hundreds of illustrations and has become exceptionally adept at catching the period atmosphere of scenes or locations. Living and working in a Victorian shooting lodge with many period features contributed significantly to her expertise.

The caricatures, such as this one from 1934, are rare prints from the original publications, dating from the early 1900s. No photocopies, these are prints from the actual publications of the time and they were all individually hand-coloured by me in Scotland. Subsequently many were mounted with conservation grade boards, with some receiving a gold ink line on the antique white vellum mount.

About purchasing these Caricatures. Many of our hand-coloured caricatures were sold from our company in Scotland, Fine Golf Art, to collectors in the USA, India, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. Others found their way to pubs, hotels and golf clubs, among them the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder and the Macdonald Marine Hotel in North Berwick.

But we are keeping at it, not least because they are so much fun. We are still now and then adding to our stock, focussing on subjects as golf, shooting, angling, and daily life. These caricatures are now available from the Schlossladen at Wasserschloss Gesmold. Visit the Schloss Gesmold Website (in German).