Parakeets (Parkieten) – Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita (1927) – Vintage Lithograph Canvas Print

Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita’s Parakeets (Parkieten) reduces a perched bird to an elegant study in line, pattern, and negative space. The parakeet’s pale body stands starkly against a deep black background, while its plumage is articulated through rhythmic vertical marks and the branch beneath it through dense diagonal hatching. A ghostlike echo of the bird’s silhouette extends behind the figure, creating an unusual sense of movement and visual repetition. The restrained black-and-white palette and highly simplified forms give the image a strikingly modern character.

Created in 1927, Parakeets exemplifies de Mesquita’s mature approach to depicting animals through decorative abstraction. Rather than pursuing naturalistic detail, he transformed the bird into a carefully balanced arrangement of geometric forms and repeated lines, anticipating aspects of modernist and Art Deco graphic design. De Mesquita was particularly celebrated for his woodcuts and other graphic works featuring birds and animals, and he later became an important teacher and influence on M. C. Escher. The Rijksmuseum identifies this particular work as a woodcut and records the artist’s handwritten signature and date on the original.

 

🖨️ Print features:

– Sustainable canvas stretched on radial pine frame

– Unique canvas coating for top-notch image quality

– Soft rubber dots on bottom back corners for support

– Safe latex inks for non-toxic printing

– Back hanging included

– Inner frame made with radiata pine sourced from renewable forests

– Please note: Due to the production process of the canvases, please allow for slight size deviations with a tolerance +/- 1/8″ (3.2mm)

– Care instructions: If the canvas does gather any dust, you may wipe it off gently with a clean, damp cloth.

 

🚚 Fulfillment, Shipping, and Return Policy:

– Printed and shipped from the U.S.

– As our items are unique and made to order, we can only accept a return or exchange in the event that an item arrives damaged or misprinted. We cannot accept returns if you order the wrong size or change your mind. Any return requests must be made within 14 days of receiving the order.

 

💬 Questions? Looking for something else, or want something in a different size? Feel free to reach out anytime; we’ll see what we can do!