Karel Petrus Cornelis de Bazel (Dutch, 1869–1923) and J.L.Mathieu Lauweriks (Dutch, 1864-1932)
De Bazel and Lauweriks, together with P.J.H. Cuypers were considered the leaders of the avant-garde of the Dutch modern movement. The work collects de Bazel's wood engravings from 1895 onward.
Until 1895, de Bazel was employed by the firm of architects of P.J.H. Cuypers. In 1895 De Bazel and Lauweriks, both interested in Theosophy and drawn to anarchism and symbolism set up a studio for architecture and applied arts.
Lauweriks was a prominent theoretician who had a major impact on movements emerging in the early twentieth century, such as the Amsterdam School, De Stijl and Bauhaus. He also made an important contribution to disseminating the theory of proportions or systems thinking and he made applied art socially acceptable in architecture.
Ernst Braches devotes some 60 pages to both Lauweriks and de Bazel in ‘Het boek als Nieuwe Kunst. Een studie in Art Nouveau’ (1973), English translation ‘Dutch Art Nouveau and Book Design’ (2009).