About the book

‘My entire life and all my thoughts revolve around paintings. They are my oxygen.’

In 1936, when Jeanne Bieruma Oosting was thirty-eight, she confidently presented herself as a painter at an exhibition in Paris. Her Self-portrait in Smock bears a triumphant expression. She had fought a long battle before daring to portray herself in such a way. According to her family’s conservative mores, girls had only one purpose in life – to get married and have children.  Working was taboo. But her battle didn’t end when Oosting had finally wrestled free of her milieu. Because, even as an artist, she ran up against gender preconceptions. The shockingly graphic work she produced in the 1930s was simultaneously praised as pioneering and criticized for being ‘unfeminine.’

In No Time to Lose, Jolande Withuis uses a wealth of material to sketch the life, loves (both male and female), friendships, and the long, multifaceted career of one of the Netherlands’ most renowned visual artists. The result is a vibrant and gripping portrait of a gifted, fascinating and courageous woman.