We wanted to bring back Dutch illustrator J. H. Moriën, so above you see a signed cover for Jan de Winter’s 1960 novel Schaduw over Scheveningen, published by Nederlandsche Keurboekerij for its S.O.S. series. The main reason we’re revisiting Moriën is because there’s confusion about his identity. The Amsterdam-based auction site Catawiki, which we figure is pretty well informed, tells us this signature belongs to a J.H. Moriën, who was active during the 1920s and 1930s, then again during the 1950s and 1960s. He was born around the turn of the century, so he’d have been working into his sixties, which was common for illustrators.
But we’ve now seen some Dutch covers signed Moriën E. Beck, and though the signatures on those are slightly different, they’re on Nederlandsche Keurboekerij S.O.S. editions from the same period, leaving little doubt it’s the same person. But is his name J.H. Moriën or Moriën E. Beck? Hell, if the Dutch can’t agree, what can we possibly say? American illustrator Ernest Chiriacka signed some of his work as Darcy, so maybe it’s a similar situation. The answer will probably present itself in time. Until then, you can see two more brilliant Moriëns here and here.
Edit: What did we tell you? We got an e-mail from Bert:
I am reacting to your article about the book covers of J.H. Morien. I am preparing an article about his work and so I discovered that he had an office in the fifties in Amsterdam where he worked together with C. Beck, Damrak 45. They were specialized in commercials and advertising, but they also worked together for book covers (C. Beck the lettering?). I hope you can use this information.
Yup, we can use the information alright, Bert. And an immense thanks to you for taking the time to write.
