Pessers’ idiosyncratic and monumental paintings evoke associations with the magic realistic tradition, in Holland represented by painters like Charley Toorop and Pyke Koch. Even a peremptory look at the ‘lyrical and tragic canvases’ (as Pessers himself used to call them) reveals how they draw on a wide variety of sources: Commedia del Arte, Goethe, Goya, Mozart, Fellini, Teresa de Lempicka, Donald Duck, Billy Holiday…
