This beautifully preserved series of twenty book illustrations by Haatje Pieters Oosterhuis, offers the viewer a fascinating insight into his infrequently seen drawings, as well as the extraordinary breadth of subject matter that he depicted in his work.

Though his formative years were spent at the Groningen Drawing Academy, presumably in anticipation of a career as a specialist landscape or portrait painter, it is through his book illustrations, many of which were created for kinderboeken, that Oosterhuis is today best known.

Aside from the present lot and a group of some 80 original designs by the artist, today housed in the archives of the Amsterdam publishers Ten Brink and de Vries,¹ large groups of drawings by Oosterhuis are simply unknown. The appearance on the market of a group of this size is an even rarer event, with nothing of remotely comparable interest on the market since this same group was acquired in 1999 (see Provenance).

For a detailed account of Oosterhuis' life and career see Leontine Buijnsters-Smets' article: "H.P. Oosterhuis, een veelgevraagd illustrator van kinderboeken in de negentiende eeuw", De boekenwereld, 1998-1999, pp. 176-187.

^1. Buijnsters-Smets, op. cit., p. 179