Anyone who walks into the art café on the top floor of the Vanderveen department store in Assen is probably wondering whether a mistake has been made. The Banner Bearer hung in the Drents Museum, wasn’t it? That’s right, but there’s another one hanging in Assen.
It is a life-size replica, made by Assenaar and hobby painter Olaf Jansen. Since Friday, the work has been hanging in art café Schurer, which overlooks Koopmansplein.
Before that, the copy hung in a completely different place. “The painting was first in our garage gathering a bit of dust, because what else can you do with it?”, Jansen laughs. “It’s too big for our living room.”
The idea to paint a replica came from painter Peter Kosterman, with whom Jansen took courses. When it became known that De Vaandeldrager was going on tour through the Netherlands, the teacher thought it would be a nice challenge to copy the painting. So the hobby painter started the job.
It took him a few months to complete his creation. “Occasionally I went to the garage for an hour in the evening to work on it,” says the artist, who started his painting hobby about six years ago. “As a policy advisor at the municipality of Assen, I have little to do with painting in daily life. But I have to do something when I retire.”
How do you learn to paint such a thing in such a short time? “I think it has a bit to do with talent,” Jansen jokes. “I used to be able to paint quite well with handicrafts.”
(The text continues below the photo)