Johfra Bosschart

The Alchemist of the Brush

The Visionary World of Franciscus Johannes Gijsbertus van den Berg (1919–1998)

To the casual observer, Johfra Bosschart is often remembered as the master of the Zodiac, the artist whose intricate posters adorned the walls of a generation seeking spiritual awakening in the 1970s. But to view Johfra merely as an illustrator of astrology is to miss the profound depth of a man who was arguably the 20th century's most disciplined "psychonaut of the brush."

Johfra was not simply painting fantasies; he was mapping the invisible geography of the human soul. He described his work not as "fantasy," but as "Fantastic Realism" or "Meta-realism"—a deliberate attempt to render the spiritual and psychological realities that exist next to or above our material world with the technical precision of a Dutch Old Master.

The Origin of "Johfra"

Born Franciscus Johannes Gijsbertus van den Berg in Rotterdam in 1919, the artist emerged from the rubble of World War II with a new identity. On March 3, 1945, an Allied bombing raid destroyed his parental home and nearly his entire early body of work—some 400 paintings and 1,000 drawings.

Rather than a tragedy, he saw this fiery destruction as a "liberation," a divine intervention that severed him from his apprentice years. From the ashes, he forged the name JOHFRA—an inversion of his given names, JOHannes and FRAnciscus—and committed himself to a path of uncompromising visionary exploration.

A Unique Philosophy: The Science of Symbolism

Johfra differed from his Surrealist contemporaries in his approach to the irrational. While artists like Salvador Dalí (whom Johfra met in 1959 and found "tragic" in his theatrical vanity) celebrated the chaos of the unconscious, Johfra sought to order it.

He viewed symbols not as random dream debris, but as precise keys to the psyche. Heavily influenced by the psychology of Carl Jung and the hermetic traditions of the Rosicrucians, Johfra believed that:

"A truly universal archetypal symbol works deep down; it touches the unconscious essence of the individual who thereby recognizes it from inside."

His paintings are dense texts waiting to be read—layers of Cabbala, Alchemy, and Gnosticism woven into organic landscapes where roots become veins and rocks breathe with ancient life.

The Journey: From Gnosticism to Pantheism

Johfra’s artistic life was a pilgrimage through the great spiritual systems of the West:

1. The Gnostic Teacher (1950s–1960s)

In his early mature period, influenced by the Lectorium Rosicrucianum, his art was didactic and hermetic. He sought "Transfiguration"—the escape from the material world to the divine. Works like Unio Mystica reflect this vertical striving for unity.

2. The Zodiac Phenomenon (1970s)

Commissioned by poster magnate Engel Verkerke, Johfra painted the 12 signs of the Zodiac in reverse order (Pisces to Aries). These works achieved global fame, becoming icons of the New Age movement. Yet, Johfra struggled with this success, feeling that the popularity of the "astrology posters" overshadowed his more serious, darker works.

3. The Nature Mystic (1974–1998)

In his final decades, living in the seclusion of the French Dordogne at Moulin de Peuch, Johfra abandoned the Gnostic rejection of the world. He embraced Pantheism, finding the Divine within nature rather than above it. His later masterpieces, such as the monumental triptych The Adoration of Pan, celebrate the chaotic, vital, and sometimes terrifying life-force of the "Great Mother" of Nature.

A Prophet of the Invisible

Johfra died in 1998, leaving behind a legacy of over a thousand works and a 6,000-page diary documenting his inner life. He remains a singular figure in modern art—a "naturalist of the image" who treated angels, demons, and elementals with the same observational rigor that a botanist applies to flora.

Welcome to the world of Johfra: a realm where the veil between the seen and the unseen is permanently lifted.