13 Facts About Frans Masereel

Frans Masereel was a Flemish painter and graphic artist who worked mainly in France, known especially for his woodcuts focused on political and social issues, such as war and capitalism.

Frans Masereel completed over 40 wordless novels in his career, and among these, his greatest is generally said to be Passionate Journey.

Frans Masereel's woodcuts influenced Lynd Ward and later graphic artists such as Clifford Harper, Eric Drooker, and Otto Nuckel.

Frans Masereel was born in the Belgian coastal town Blankenberge on 31 July 1889, and at the age of five, his father died.

Frans Masereel's met and married a physician with strong Socialist convictions, and the family together regularly protested against the appalling working conditions of the Ghent textile workers.

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In 1911 Frans Masereel settled in Paris for four years and then emigrated to Switzerland, where he worked as a graphic artist for journals and magazines.

Nonetheless, when a circle of friends in Antwerp interested in art and literature decided to found the magazine Lumiere, Frans Masereel was one of the artists invited to illustrate the text and the column headings.

In 1921 Frans Masereel returned to Paris, where he painted his famous street scenes, the Montmartre paintings.

Frans Masereel lived for a time in Berlin, where his closest creative friend was George Grosz.

Frans Masereel had designed decorations and costumes for numerous theatre productions.

Frans Masereel's woodcuts influenced Lynd Ward and later graphic artists such as George Walker, Clifford Harper, Eric Drooker, and New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno.

At that time Frans Masereel drew illustrations for famous works of world literature by Thomas Mann, Emile Zola, and Stefan Zweig.

Frans Masereel produced a series of illustrations for the classic Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak by his fellow Belgian Charles De Coster; these illustrations followed the book in its translations to numerous languages.