Jean Thomassen

Jean Thomassen (born 5 September 1949) is a Dutch artist and writer whose paintings are in an 'absurd realism' style. He lives in Heiloo in the Netherlands.

Absurd realism is a type of art within the broad category of fantastic art. The term was first mentioned  in the Netherlands  in 1991 in the book 'The Absurd Reality of Jean Thomassen' by the Belgian author Gerard van Hulst.

Jean Thomassen's works in this field include the triptychs ''Egyptian Triptych'' (1995) and ''Last Judgement Day'' (2006-2011), ''28 x Rembrandt'' (1989), and ''1900 & Yesterday'' (2012-2017). A characteristic of Thomassen's paintings is the many incongruous elements such as skies full of nails and fried eggs, crooked houses with weeping roof tiles, and eyes. In this respect his work has been compared in the press to that of the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch (c1450-1516). On 17 November 2008 a number of his works, including Egyptian Triptych, were destroyed when the Daan Enneking collection went up in flames.

In 2010, Jean Thomassen was made a knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau for his contributions to Dutch art. In 2013 his work was awarded a Merit Award in Leipzig Germany, and in 2014 he won the First Prize Palm Award. Provided by Wikipedia