Hendrik werkman biography of abraham

Dutch artist, typographer and printer

Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman (commonly called H.

Hendrik werkman biography of abraham

N. Werkman; 29 April 1882 – 10 April 1945) was an experimental Dutchartist, typographer, and printer. He set up a clandestine printing house during the Nazi occupation (1940–1945) and was shot by the Gestapo in the closing days of the war.

Life and work

Werkman was born on 29 April 1882 in Leens, in the province of Groningen. He was the son of a veterinary surgeon who died while he was young, after which his mother moved the family to the city of Groningen.^[1] In 1908, he established a printing and publishing house there that at its peak employed some twenty workers.

Financial setbacks forced its closure in 1923, after which Werkman started anew with a small workshop in the attic of a warehouse.^[2]

Werkman was a member of the artists' group De Ploeg ("The Plough"), for whom he printed posters, invitations and catalogues.

From 1923 to 1926,