M. Snestrup, unknown printmaker from Denmark

M. Snestrup 

(Unknown Danish printmaker) 

Almost 4(!) years after showing this Danish mermaid print in this Blog (here*) I received a second example of a woodblock print by the illusive M. Snestrup by Danish reader Jeanett this week. 

Maybe this will help to find and identify this unknown printmaker. And maybe also the location of this remote harbor with fishing ships. Sooner or later there will be some-one who knows. Snestrup, by the way, is (today) a suburb and part of greater Odense (127.000 inh.) on the Danish Island of Fyn. It may have been the name of  a small dwelling or a farmhouse even. Very few people in Denmark are using the family name Snestrup.    

M. Snestrup

M. Snestrup

unknown Danish printmaker

I discovered this woodcut in a fleamarket, titled: "girl talking to the plants". It is signed Org. Traesnit, Eger Trisk in Danish: original woodcut, own print. Signed in pencil: M. Snestrup. There is nothing special to it, not technical nor easthetical. But the subject is rather sweet: who isn't enchanted by the mermaids mythology.

There is nothing further to be found on M. Snestrup, the printmaker, on Google. Just a similar print offered in Denmark.

So: I believe it's not a girl at all but a mermaid sitting on the seafloor. Hans Christian Anderson's ((1805-1975) story. And the famous statue by Edvard Erikson made in 1913 "Den lille Havfrue" on the Langelinie in Kopenhagen.

Besides many images of medieval woodcuts I found only this Dutch example (the maker unknown to me too) of "the mermaid of Westenschouwen" 1933. After a local mythical story.
I am not going to make this a posting on mermaids in art (mermaids have inspired so many artists) but when you have only the slightest interest in mermaids and her history you must visit this very interesting Blog: http://mermaid-williambond.blogspot.com/ William Bond having more surprising and interesting viewpoints towards the world we live in that I found worth reading by the way. Recommended for all female readers i.p.

From Williams Blog I borrowed these two pictures of mermaids located, as in M. Snestrup's, on the seafloor.

Right : Arthurs Rackham (1867-1939) "Ondine" .


Left: Arthur Hacker (1858-1919) "the water maiden".


This picture of an oil-painting by Pre-Raphaelite painter John Collier (1850-1934), "the land baby" to close this posting written to see if some-one knows this obscured artist M. Snestrup.

With a special thank you to Lotusgreen who reminded me to take better care of "borrowed" pictures and Blog-ethics.