The Woodcut Art of Frans Masereel
In 1919, Belgian artist Frans Masereel published a wordless novel called Passionate Journey. The book is a collection of 165 woodcut prints depicting an everyman character trying to survive in the big city. The book is considered to be the first graphic novel ever produced. Each page is an original carved pear woodcut print. Each single-cel image exists as a story in its own right. Taken together, the prints tell an inspired and tragic tale of a young man beaten into submission by modern city living.
Passionate Journey was released in 1919 just after the end of World War I. Masereel was thirty when he completed the book. Masereel made no secret of his socialist political ideology. The work was celebrated in left-wing circles and anarchist bookstores.
Masereel had a difficult childhood. His father died when he was five. His mother moved the family to Ghent where she met a doctor with passionate socialist beliefs. Masereel accompanied his new stepfather to public protests against the ghastly working conditions at Belgium textile plants. The experience kindled a lifelong commitment in Masereel to speak out against exploitation of workers.
Masereel went to art school in Ghent and studied under the Flemish painter Jean Delvin. He made his first etchings and woodcuts at age 20. He became a pacifist and refused to serve with the Belgian army…
