Both this signed print and its accompanying newspaper clipping were found inside a second hand frame that I had bought for materials. They were actually hidden behind an old poster, so I only became aware of them once I was back at my workshop. After reading the clipping, I found it so unusual that I decided to make new housings for the pair including a frame for the print.
The clipping is from a newspaper called NRC Handelsblad, it introduces the artwork as a “prent van de maand” (print of the month) for February 1974. Readers could write in to order a copy, and the unknown reader that ordered this one (48 of 150) had the presence of mind to preserve the clipping alongside their print.
The artist, Simon Koene was born in Poeldijk in 1946 and studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. They were awarded the Prix de Rome in 1974. The article places Koene among a generation of Dutch printmakers working with technical precision. This etching comes from Koene’s “Dutch Period” during which they produced family prints, literary prints, and a Dutch landscape series.
The new frame is made from Oak grown Galjoenstraat in the city of Utrecht, this particular oak was planted in 1952 and felled in 2018. The frame is joined with keyed mitres for extra strength. The artwork is encapsulated in archival matboard, while the glass and backing board are recycled. The clipping is also preserved in matboard with a plastic coating over its viewing window, it attaches to the back of the frame from which it can be removed and replaced.
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