~Kate Greenaway~Illustrator

 
“Living in that childish wonder is a most
beautiful feeling
—I can so well remember it.
There was always something more—
behind and beyond everything—to me,
the golden spectacles were very, very big.”
~Kate Greenaway~

Originally named Catherine, Kate was
born on March 17, 1846 in Hoxton, North London.
Her father John Greenaway was a master engraver
and her mother, Elizabeth Catherine Jones, was an
accomplished seamstress. Kate’s choice of
profession was clearly influenced by John Greenaway.
They had a special bond and he served as a
guiding force throughout her life. It is often
thought that he was Kate’s biggest influence,
however, her mother influenced her subject
matter more than any one.

Money was always tight because John supported
his widowed mother and two unmarried sisters as
well as his growing family. When times got tough,
Elizabeth took financial matters into her own hands.
She moved the family to Islington and opened a
dress shop making clothing for children.
She was so successful that she had to hire outworkers.
Later, she expanded her services to include millinery,
underclothing and eventually lady’s clothing.

Kate lived a happy and carefree childhood.
She enjoyed watching the well dressed people
come in and out of the shop. She had a
photographic memory and many of the outfits
her mother made reappeared in her books later.
For the most part, Kate was left on her own
to explore her surroundings and daydream. 

Her first book with Evans, ‘Under the Window’,
came out in October of 1879. Evan’s was so taken
with Kate’s drawings that no expense was spared.
He used four color blocks to reproduce her
delicate watercolors—red, blue, yellow and flesh.
The publisher, Routledge, advised Evan’s against
a large printing but the 20,000 copies sold almost
immediately and Evans had to produce
a second printing of 70,000.

Her earnings allowed her and her father to
share expenses for a nicer home in a higher
class neighborhood. She now had room for a
studio and garden. Kate worked everyday in
her studio from eight until one. She would
draw from her child models or manikins dressed
in the outfits that she designed and sewed herself.
She spent her afternoons walking or window shopping,
returning home later for the highlight of her day,
afternoon tea. In the summer, she had tea in
her beautiful garden where she would plant
the flowers that she would need in her illustrations.
Night time was spent reading or sewing.

For the next several years, Kate and Evans
collaborated on several more books, all of
which did well. Evans also convinced her
to illustrate her first Almanack in 1883,
which sold over 90,000 copies. Eventually Kate
was to receive five pounds per drawing
and half of the profits.

 
A few children books:
-Under the Window (1879)
-Mother Goose (1881)
-A Day in a Child’s Life (1882)
-Little Ann - A Book (1883)
-The Language of Flowers (1884)
-Marigold Garden (1885)
-Kate Greenaway's Alphabet (1885)
-Birthday Book (1886)
-The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1888)

Discover the magic and enchantment

~Angels~

 

Who are without mercy,
Who confide in trumpet flowers,
Who carry loose change in their pockets,
Who dress in black velvet,
Who wince and fidget like bats,
Who balance their haloes on hatracks,
Who watch reruns of famine,
Who powder their noses with pollen,
Who laugh and unleash earthquakes,
Who sidle in and out of our dreams
Like magicians, like childhood friends,
Who practice their smiles like pirates,
Who exercise by walking to Zion,
Who live on the edge of doubt,
Who cause vertigo but ease migraines,
Who weep milky tears when troubled,
Whose night sweats engender the plague,
Who pinion their arms to chandeliers,
Who speak in riddles and slant rhymes,
Who love the weak and foolhardy,
Who lust for unripe persimmons,
Who scavenge the fields for lost souls,
Who hover near lighthouses,
Who pray at railroad crossings,
Who supervise the study of rainbows,
Who cannot blush but try,
Who curl their hair with corkscrews,
Who honeymoon with Orion,
Who are not wise but pure,
Who behave with impious propriety,
Who hourly scour our faces with hope,
Whose own faces glow like radium,
Whom we've created in our own form,
Who are without mercy, seek and yearn
To return us like fossilized roses
To the wholeness of our original bloom.

~Poem by Maurya Simon~

~Amy Millicent Sowerby~

 Illustrations from the First edition of Childhood
by Millicent Sowerby, published by Chatto & Windus 1907.
This is Milicent Sowerby's 3rd illustrated book.

Millicent Sowerby was born in Northumberland,
England, in 1878-1967 the daughter of designer
and illustrator John G. Sowerby.
Her style was clearly influenced
by the famed Victorian illustrator Kate Greenaway,
usually depicting innocent children at play using
flat colors and strong outlines.

 

Millicent Sowerby werd geboren in Northumberland
in Engeland in 1878, en is overleden in 1967.
Ze was de dochter van de ontwerper
en illustrator John. G. Sowerby.
Haar stijl van tekenen werd sterk beïnvloed
door Kate Greenaway, en vaak koos ze kinderen
die zaten te spelen, om te tekenen in zachte kleuren!

  
Finding encouragement at home, Sowerby started
painting at an early age. She took some art classes
for several years but distance prevented her from
attending them for more than two days a week.
Mostly, she was self-taught, learning from
the work of other illustrators.
Thuis werd ze gestimuleerd om te schilderen
zodoende volgde ze lessen maar vanwege
de lange afstand
kon ze er maar 2x per week naar toe.
Hoofdzakelijk heeft ze zichzelf alles zelf aangeleerd!

In an attempt to help their family’s finances,
Sowerby and her sister Githa collaborated on
children’s books. Githa wrote the stories and
verses while Sowerby illustrated them for over
twenty years. Sowerby was also a prolific illustrator
of children’s picture post cards, depicting scenes from Shakespeare, and Kate Greenaway type girls.
Later, she designed thirty sets of cards for a
yearly series called ‘Postcards for the Little Ones’.

 
When Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland went out of
copyright in 1907, like other illustrators,
Sowerby was commissioned to illustrate it.
Millicent Sowerby werd uitkozen om
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland te illustreren!

Well into her eighties, Sowerby remained
a watercolorist and painted flowers.
Toen ze eenmaal 80jaar was geweest
schilderde ze nog steeds met waterverf
en schilderde meestal bloemen!

“It has always been the beautiful in childhood
that has attracted me. I love flowers and bright colours,
and I generally use these in the backgrounds
for my paintings of children.”

Enkele door haar geïllustreerde boeken:
A few books:
-Sowerby, Githa, The Wise Book, Dent, 1906.
-Carroll, Lewis, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1908.
-Sowerby, Githa, Childhood, London, 1907,
-Sowerby, Githa, The Bumbletoes, 1907.
-Sowerby, Githa, The Merry Book, 1908.
-Sowerby, Githa, Yesterday’s Children, 1908.
-Sowerby, Githa, The Happy Book, 1909.
-Stevenson, Robert Louis, A Child’s Garden of Verses, 1909.
-Stevenson, Robert Louis, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, 1909.
-My Own Picture Book (with Anne Anderson),  1930.

~Hilda T.Miller~

The Island

I know an island in a lake,
Green upon waters grey,
It has a strange enchanted air;
I hear the fairies singing there

When I go by that way.
They guard their hidden dwelling-place
With bands of stalwart reeds,
But sometimes, by a happy chance,
I see them all come out and dance

Upon the water-weeds.
One night, one summer night, I know
Suddenly I shall wake,
And very softly hasten down
And out beyond the sleeping town

To find my fairy lake.
I shall not need to seek a boat,
It will be moored, I think,
Within a tiny pebbled bay
Where meadow-sweet and mallow sway

Close to the water’s brink.
The moon from shore to shadowy shore
Will make a shining trail,
And I shall sing their fairy song
As joyfully I float along -
I shall not need a sail.

~Book: 
The Rose Fyleman Fairy Book by Rose Fyleman (1923)

~Johanna Spyri~

 
Johanna Spyri is born on 12 June 1827
She died on 7 July 1901
and was an author of children's stories, and is
best known for Heidi. Born Johanna Louise Heusser
in the rural area of Hirzel, Switzerland, as a child she spent several summers in the area around Chur in Graubünden,
the setting she later would use in her novels.

In 1852, Johanna Heusser married Bernhard Spyri,
a lawyer. While living in the city of Zürich she began
to write about life in the country. Her first book titled
A Leaf on Vrony's Grave, was published in 1871 and
the following year further stories for both adults and
children appeared, among them the tale of Heidi that
became an instant and enduring success.
Heidi, the story of an orphan girl who lives with her
grandfather in the Alps, is not only famous for its
vivid portrayal of the landscape but also for its
understanding of how children see life and their feelings.

Her husband and her only child, a son named
Bernard, both died in 1884. Alone,
she devoted herself to charitable causes and
wrote over fifty more stories before her death in 1901.
She was interred in the family plot at the
Sihlfeld-A Cemetery in Zürich, Switzerland.
An icon in Switzerland, Johanna Spyri's portrait
was placed on a postage stamp in 1951 and
on a 20 CHF commemorative coin in 2001.

Novels:
A Leaf On Vrony's Grave (1871)
Heidi (1880)
Toni the Little Wood Carver (1920)
Vinzi: A Story of the Swiss Alps (1923)
Dora (1924)
Gritli's Children: A Story of Switzerland (1924)
Veronica (1924)
Jorli: The Story of a Swiss Boy (1926)
Maxa's Children (1926)
Uncle Titus in the Country (1926)
Eveli: The Little Singer (1926)

 

Johanna Spyri died on 7 July 1901 Zürich and is
interred in the family plot at the Sihlfeld-A Cemetery
in Zürich, Switzerland. In 2001 there was a
CHF commemorative coin minted in Spyri's honour.
The Heidi Foundation was established in 1999
"to promote and publicize the story of Heidi,
as conceived by the author, Johanna Spyri,
all over the world."

Johanna Spyri is geboren in Hirzel op 12 juni 1827
en overleden in Zürich op 7 juli 1901
Ze was een Zwitsers schrijfster. Ze schreef onder
andere het beroemde boek Heidi,
dat later ook verfilmd is.

Johanna Spyri was de vierde van zes kinderen
van arts Johann Jacob Heusser en dichteres
Meta Heusser-Schweizer. Ze groeide op in Hirzel,
een dorp in het kanton Zürich. In 1852 trouwde
ze met Johann Bernhard Spyri. Haar eerste verhaal
(Ein Blatt auf Vronys Grab) verscheen pas in 1871,
toen Spyri 44 was. In 1881 schreef ze
Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre, dat een groot
succes werd. Het jaar daarna kwam een vervolg uit,
Heidi kann brauchen was es gelernt hat.
Het boek wordt ook nu nog veel gelezen,
en is meerdere malen verfilmd.

 

Alle boeken en teksten van Johanna Spyri
werpen een kritische, nietsverhullende blik op
Zwitserland en op het leven van mensen tijdens
de vroege industrialisatie. Vooral het lot van kinderen
en jonge meisjes ging Spyri aan het hart. Haar teksten zijn daarom niet alleen interessant vanuit literair oogpunt,
maar ook vanuit de maatschappijgeschiedenis.

Van 1871 tot haar dood in 1901 bracht Spyri
31 boeken, 27 verhalenbundels en 4 brochures uit.

 

 Heidi, an orphan living in a cottage in the Alps
with her grandfather deals with many of the issues
children and adults can relate to. He is overprotective,
and she ends up spending much free time with
Peter in the meadows. When she moves to Frankfurt,
Germany to live with Klara, she has a difficult time
adjusting to the confinement of the city and
discipline of education. Much like Spyri experienced
in real life, Heidi becomes homesick for the freedom
and fresh air of the country. When she returns with Klara,
there is jealousy and conflict intermingled with the
individual pains of growing up. Heidi has sold millions
of copies, inspired many movies, cartoons,
television series, and is translated
to over forty languages.

2 Pictures from the movie ‘Heidi’
2 foto’s uit de film ‘Heidi’

~Anne Anderson~Illustrator

A prolific illustrator, Anne Anderson’s delicate
work exhibits a fluidity typical of the Art Nouveau movement.
Over One hundred books to her credit has insured
that most children in that era have enjoyed her work.

Anderson was a Scottish artist born in 1874,
then spent her childhood days in Argentina.
Her book illustrations began appearing at
the end of the Edwardian era.
She died in 1930?

In June 1912, she married a painter, Alan Wright
and they settled in Berkshire. Wright had a successful
career in illustration prior to 1898 when he illustrated
a story for Baron Corvo. The story and Corvo
were highly criticized in the press, and because of
his association with the story, Wright’s commissions
dried up until he married Anderson. They collaborated
on many books together—he would draw the animals
and birds and she would draw everything else. 
It has been said that it is difficult to distinguish his
work from hers. But mostly, he dedicated himself to
providing her with an environment conducive to her work.


 

In addition to her illustration, she was also an etcher,
watercolor painter and designer of greeting cards.     

Click here for more illustrations.
and also
on Artsy Craftsy.com

Illustrations here come from Old, Old, Fairy Tales,
Grimms Fairy Tales, The Wonder Book, Heidi
Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales, Mother Goose
and The Mammoth Wonder Book.