Chapter Kunst in dienst van het eerste leesonderwijs : Onderwijsillustrator Cornelis Jetses (1873-1955) en de Bremer Fibel (1906)"

Abstract

In 1906, a new primer was published in the German city of Bremen: The Bremer Fibel. Its illustrations were created by Cornelis Jetses (1873-1955) one of the bestknown illustrators of teaching material in the Netherlands, his home country, in the first half of the twentieth century. This article focuses on these illustrations and shows how Jetses used his artistic skills to create images which fulfilled the demands of representatives of Reformed Pedagogy, a movement which emerged in Europe around 1900 and placed the child at the centre of education. By creating an overall design for the book that should help children develop a good aesthetic taste and by showing people, objects and situations that were part of the pupils’ everyday world, Cornelis Jetses played a part in establishing a child-oriented education in Bremen. Furthermore, this article also shows how the illustrator used artistic composition principles to create images that helped pupils to learn how to read words and decipher images.