Annet Kossen

Annet Kossen
Illustrator
Annet Kossen's youtube profile picture
Full name	Annet Kossen
Born	May 28, 1938
Died	October 20, 2024 (aged 86)
Birthplace	Alkmaar, The Netherlands
Occupation	Illustrator Painter
Years active	1964-2014

Annet Kossen (May 28, 1938 - October 20, 2024) was a painter and an illustrator. Born in Alkmaar. She was the illustrator to bring the originally French fairytale, Drakestail, to Herman van Veen's attention, which was the start of everything Alfred Jodocus Kwak.

History

New York

Kossen developed a passion for drawing from a young age. After completing mulo, she enrolled at Schoevers, studying office management and secretarial tasks—fields she disliked but pursued at her parents' insistence to learn a trade. She lived in Alkmaar until age 19 before relocating to Amsterdam. This education allowed her to secure work at Carré and Uitgeverij Querido.

In 1964, she moved to New York and managed the work of prominent young American illustrators, leading a successful company. During her time in America, she also briefly attended the School of Visual Arts, where she focused on painting. During this period, she received her first illustration commission, creating black-and-white illustrations for a cookbook for a publisher friend in New York. She later contributed several illustrations to the magazine Puffin Post.

In 1973, she returned to Amsterdam with writer Rob Chrispijn, whom she married later. She used her professional illustrations from America, along with other work, to create a portfolio for publishers. In 1977, publisher Lemniscaat commissioned her to illustrate a picture book called Repelsteeltje (Rumpelstiltskin).

Alfred J. Kwak

A picture made for the original Alfred Jodocus Kwak boek, but only featured in the youtube video and not in the book, depicting Alfred Jodocus Kwak selling duckweed.

Around this time, Kossen met Herman van Veen through her husband, Rob Chrispijn, who writes song lyrics, takes photographs, and manages lighting for van Veen’s productions. During a visit when Kossen was setting up her own portfolio, van Veen was impressed by her illustrations and expressed interest in creating a picture book with her. He asked her to find a suitable story as a foundation. Kossen reported struggling with imposter syndrom during this period, as she had not formally trained in illustration and was self-taught.

Kossen found inspiration in an old fairy tale, Drakestail, from The Red Fairy Book, written by Andrew Lang in 1890. Lang adapted this story from the French tale, Bout-d'-Canard (literally "Duck Butt"), by Charles Marelle, published in 1888. She translated this story into Dutch for van Veen, who contributed some verses.

Before beginning a picture book, van Veen incorporated the story into a small stage play, created as a birthday gift for a friend of a Harlekijn Holland employee in 1976. Shortly after, in 1977, the director of the Residentie Orkest asked van Veen to develop a children’s musical production, prompting him to further adapt the story into a play, which premiered in February 1978.

Kossen’s illustrations were featured on the vinyl cover of the Alfred J. Kwak theater play, and following the play's success, a story book was published in 1979, with a revised edition in 1987.

Kossen later expressed frustration over this period, feeling resentment toward Herman van Veen for appropriating Alfred Jodocus Kwak. Although she had no contractual agreement on ownership, she lamented missing out on shares of the profits generated by Alfred’s success. She was replaced by illustrators Harald Siepermann and Hans Bacher, who created a comic adaptation based on Alfred’s stage play adventure.

Egel & Muis

An example of the Egel & Muis comic depicting one gag in one page.

Following Alfred's success, Kossen found it easier to secure illustration work. By the late 1970s, she had moved to Vledderveen, where she created book covers for children’s books and contributed illustrated stories to children’s magazines such as Okki and Ezelsoor.

She also developed a series of comics about Egel & Muis (literally "Porcupine & Mouse") for Okki, of which a page came out every two weeks, and were later compiled by the publisher Casterman into the first two Egel & Muis books. Kossen was commissioned to create a series of 10 books.

Kossen often spent an entire year on each book, handling both illustrations and stories. The books comprised single-page stories, which required a significant number of sketches. She would sketch on transparent sheets, which she then traced onto watercolor paper with the help of a lightbox. Each page had to contain a clear punchline and maintain a strong compositional balance. Kossen was meticulous about the final result. Symbolic elements emerged naturally during this process.

For the Dutch version of Sesame Street Kossen would develop a number of episodes about Egel & Muis. In these episodes, Frank Groothof would narrate the story and perform songs written by her husband, Chrispijn, while Dutch Sesame Street characters Ieniemienie and Tommy provided commentary. Her illustrations would carry the story. Footage from these episodes was not preserved.

Kossen completed only three books in the 10-book series. She later revisited Egel & Muis in a picture book titled Egel & Muis: En de gestolen prinses, finding that writing a picture book was easier for her than creating comics.

Annet Kossen giving a puppet performance at primary school De Heidehoek in Vladderveen.

Later life

Her books were compiled on her YouTube page, Annet verteld (literally "Annet tells"), with the assistance of her cousin, Michiel Jongeneel. These books were abridged and turned into videos narrated by Kossen herself.

She also began reading her books to the children of various primary schools, including De Heidehoek, the primary school in her hometown of Vledderveen, where she adapted her stories into puppet shows. Over time, she began giving painting lessons to some of the children and eventually started a painting club at her home for up to seven girls, known as De club van de Zeven Penselen (literally "The Club of Seven Brushes"). She continued this club for several years until her students moved on to middle school.

Kossen talking to Princess Margriet after having designed children's postage stamps in 1980.

Annet Kossen was also a painter in the fine arts. From 1992 to 2014, her work was sold through a gallery in the former monastery La Cartuja de Cazalla in southern Spain. In 2022, at the age of 84, her work was exhibited at Expo Czaar Peter. During this time she would also reveal her self-published book Annet Kossen: Ik zoek naar u in ieder ding (lit. Annet Kossen: I will search for you in every thing) containing more than 170 paintings from her entire ouvre. The book's title was derived from the only collection of poems called Stroomversnelling (lit. Rapids) by Hella Haasse, which really affected Kossen in early twenties. Only 200 were made and sold at cost price.

Her fine art takes on a markedly different tone from her illustration work, often characterized by melancholy and darker themes. Taking inspiration from Stroomversnelling, much of Annet's work evokes the longing of freedom, in which children are depicted imprisoned. Through her sometimes horrifying looking paintings she was able to cope with her own horrifying past, even though that was not her original intention. According to Chrispijn she would let her hands do the work until there was something that inspired her. She also created a series of paintings inspired by the writings of Japanese-Swiss artist Leiko Ikemura. In her later years, she has produced more abstract work, something she attributes to the process of aging. As she grows older, Kossen observes that her art increasingly reflects an exploration of hidden connections between events rather than having a story to tell.

On the 20th of October 2024, her husband Chrispijn found her passed away in the grass of their front garden. She had been working on the ending to her last book De Vogelvrouw (lit. The Bird Lady), a story in which three orphaned sisters were lost, but are saved by De Vogelvrouw. The lady helps the sisters work through great sorrow and that you can only heal if you face reality. Chrispijn told her to write the ending down, before she would forget. After returning home on the day Kossen had died, he suddenly realized she might've forgotten to write down the ending. To his relief it was all there. She had written the ending down in her final hours.

Exhibition Ik zoek naar u in ieder ding

On the 27th of April 2025, the preview of Annet Kossen's posthumous exhibition was at the Herman van Veen Arts Center in the presence of Rob Chrispijn and Herman van Veen. Until the end of the month of May a big selection of her work was shown, with scenography by Ingrid Verbraeken, who divided her work onto several walls of the gallery in different themes. For Chrispijn his wife's story has come full circle as her carreer started with Harlekijn Holland and has now ended there as well. Her work could be bought with the proceedings going to the Herman van Veen Arts Center fund. Chrispijn would visit every Sunday to speak to visitors about Annet Kossen and her work.

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Les Fleurs de Larmes by Annet Kossen. Some of her later abstract work.

Works

This list is incomplete.

Illustrator

• Alfred Jodocus Kwak, written by Herman van Veen (first edition, Harlekijn Holland, Westbroek) 1979
• De oude man en de duiven, written by Jan Procházka (Leopold) 1983
• Kerstliedjes om te zingen en te spelen, written by Ton Koopman (Harlekijn Holland) 1985
• Alfred Jodocus Kwak, written by Herman van Veen (second edition edition, Harlekijn Holland, Westbroek) 1987
• Emy's droomreis, written by Trang Hang (Uitgeverij de Speelweide) 2004
• Gelukvogels hebben Makkelijk Praten, written by Rob Chrispijn ('t Land van Elk) 2024

Written and illustrated

• Egel en Muis worden vriend (Casterman) 1993
• Egel en Muis in Afrika (Casterman) 1993
• Egel en Muis in het circus (Casterman) 1995
• Egel en Muis: De gestolen prinses (Uitgeverij Hillen BV) 2002

Self published

• Annet Kossen: Ik zoek naar u in ieder ding, 2022

External links

• Visit her personal website.
• Watch Annet Kossen tell her stories in audio form on her youtube page Annet vertelt (lit. Annet tells)
• Watch Rob Chrispijn's youtube video on Kossen's exposition in Amsterdam.
• Watch Annet Kossen read and perform a piece from Egel en muis en de gestolen princes(lit. Hedgehog and Mouse and the stolen princess) for the first 5 years of primary school De Heidehoek in Vledderveen in 2011 on youtube.
• Watch an excrept from the preview of the exhibition Ik zoek naar u in ieder ding on the 27th of April 2025 on youtube.
• Rob Chrispijn talks about Annet Kossen during a Radio M/RTV Utrecht interview by Robert Jan Booij.