Here, Jungmann has depicted a woman wearing traditional Dutch costume, a figure he may have encountered as a young artist during one of his excursions to various locales in Holland.
Catalogue note
Nico Jungmann was a Dutch/Anglo artist who was active at the turn of the twentieth century. He was best known as an illustrator, especially of travel and topographical books, and among his most well-known publications were books on Holland (1904), Norway (1905) and Normandy (1905). Each travelogue featured charming depictions of the regional people, whose characteristics and customs Jungmann had studied during his frequent visits to the countries that featured in his books.
Jungmann moved to London from Amsterdam in 1893 and eventually became a naturalized British citizen. In the early 1900s, he became a frequent exhibitor at the London gallery, Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell’s on New Bond Street. Judging from the quality of execution, Woman in Profile is the sort of picture that would have been included in one of his London shows. Here, Jungmann has depicted a woman wearing traditional Dutch costume, a figure he may have encountered as a young artist during one of his excursions to various locales in Holland. She stands in front of the church of St. Bavo in Haarlem, with the famous sculpture of Laurens Janszoon Coster (one of the earliest inventors of the printing press) visible in the background. To the right is the old guild hall for butchers. The work shows a daring use of color, where most of the composition is devoted to the dark brown, almost black cloak of the woman, with touches of the deep blue of her dress visible at the collar and touching her feet. The result is almost three-dimensional and is accentuated by placing her against St. Bavo, painted in a soft warm palette.
We are grateful to Elsa Dikkes for her assistance in cataloguing this work.