Book illustrations of fairy tale graphics. Writers illustrating their books

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The Dobraya Kniga publishing house, which for several years in a row published “postcard books” with photographs of animals and funny captions for them, suddenly decided to switch to gift editions of children’s books and offered readers several fairy tales illustrated by modern European artists.

Puss in Boots

Noteworthy is the original “Puss in Boots” by Charles Perrault with illustrations by another American artist(1939-2001), also appeared in the editorial office of The Good Book. Perhaps we have never seen such an original cover: it depicts a sly cat’s face in a noble dress of the Renaissance and nothing else, there is neither the name of the author, nor the title of the fairy tale, nor other attributes and vignettes familiar to us. However, this should not be surprising, since it was Marcellino who is known as an innovator in the field of cover design (starting in 1974, he created 40 covers a year for 15 years and revolutionized the field).

Marcellino began illustrating children's books in the mid-1980s. and his first large-scale work- “Puss in Boots” - brought him one of the most prestigious awards in the field of children's illustration in 1991 . Readers note that the illustrations are filled sunlight, as well as humorous overtones, and anticipate a new interpretation of the image of Puss in Boots, later presented to viewers of cartoons by the Pixar studio.

Russian readers are familiar with the illustrator’s work from the author’s picture book “Menu for a Crocodile,” which was published by the Polyandria publishing house last year (though the illustrator is presented as “Marcellino”). The fairy tale “Menu for a Crocodile” (originally “I, crocodile”) was recognized as the best illustrated book for children by the New York Times in 1999.

The Snow Queen

Readers continue to get acquainted with the work of the British illustrator in the new edition “ Snow Queen» G.-H. Andersen, who also appeared in " Good book"(most recently, the same publishing house published H. H. Andersen with illustrations by K. Birmingham, and last year the Eksmo publishing house presented C. S. Lewis's fairy tale, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, illustrated by him). The first book with these illustrations was published in the UK in 2008 by the publishing house Candlewick.

Using chalk and pencil, Birmingham creates large-scale two-page illustrations of the most famous fairy tales. They become the main event of the book, even if we are talking about a very famous text, be it “A Christmas Carol” by D. Moore (the book with illustrations by Birmingham sold more than a million copies) or “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis. A distinctive feature of Birmingham's illustrations are very detailed, photographically accurate images of people, as well as a large-scale, very bright fairy-tale world.

Listen, I'm here!

The publishing house "Enas-book" published a picture book by Brigitte Endres "Listen, I'm here!", illustrated by an artist from Germany. This is the story of how a little chameleon suffered alone in a pet store, and then ran away from there and met a little girl on the street who became his friend and owner.

If the illustrators mentioned above work for years on the same book, then Turlognas takes less than a month to create one: in 2013, as many as 15 picture books were published in Germany, for which she drew illustrations, and in 2014 - 13. drawings, apparently made with the help of a computer, many large-headed, rather cute, although very similar friends at a friend of children, depicted with deliberately crooked lines. There is no desire for realism in them (parents of young readers will call this style “cartoonish”), but the situations and landscapes - a street, a store, a room - are very recognizable, and the pictures are not at all tasteless brightness.

It is interesting that Turlonyas in most cases acts as an illustrator of someone else’s text and almost never composes a book entirely on his own. Russian readers are familiar with her work from Michael Engler’s book “The Fantastic Elephant,” which was published by the Polyandria publishing house in 2014.

Otto in town

A huge “cardboard” for the youngest readers was prepared in the children’s edition of the publishing house “Mann, Ivanov and Ferber” - this is a picture book by the famous Belgian illustrator “Otto in the City”. At first glance, the book looks like another one already familiar to our readers wimmelbuch, its pages are scattered with many details that you can look at for a long time and look for objects and phenomena of the familiar world. But in fact, “Otto in the City” presents us with a completely innovative approach to “fluttering”: the book can be read while moving around it, and also viewed as a museum: read from beginning to end from below, and from end to beginning from above. In general, the book is drawn in the format of circular city panoramas, where there is no usual composition “from below - the earth and the city, from above - the sky and airplanes”, the reader looks at the city as if from top down, from the sky, and sees roads, houses, intersections and residents a conventional European city imagined by the artist.

Tom Champ came up with a whole series of books about the kitten Otto. Each of them presents unusual panoramas of places familiar to residents Western Europe. At first glance, his drawings look like collages made from different materials, but the impression is deceptive: the artist draws all his illustrations acrylic paint on cardboard.

Hobbit

Many illustrators worked on images for the professor’s books about Middle-earth, but the very first illustrator of “The Hobbit” was the author himself. Tolkien didn't show up professional artist and regularly apologized to his publishers for insufficiently high-quality drawings (however, only ten black and white images, as well as a map, were included in the first edition of the tale). However, who knew better than him what Rivendell, Beorn's house, the dragon Smaug and other characters and places really looked like? In February of this year, the publishing house "AST" published the next edition of the fairy tale "The Hobbit", in a new translation and with the author's illustrations, which are located on the inserts.

Hans Christian Andersen

Some Russian illustrators are in demand all over the world; books with their works are published both in Western countries and in publishing houses in Korea and China. For example, almost half of the books with illustrations were published abroad. Russian readers saw some of his illustrations much later than American readers, this also applies to the new product from the Ripol publishing house, a book from the biographical series “Great Names”, which is dedicated to the storyteller: in the USA the book was published in 2003. The authors of the book told several stories from the life of a beloved storyteller (unfortunately, stylistically the text in Russian is very flawed), and Chelushkin illustrated them in his original manner, combining the real with the fantastic.

Poets of the Silver Age for children

Absolutely new collection"Poets Silver Age for children" by the publishing house "Onyx-Lit" is at the same time the debut of a young illustrator from St. Petersburg, who drew pictures for the famous poems of Marina Tsvetaeva, Nikolai Gumilyov, Sasha Cherny and other poets of the beginning of the last century. The images of people, children and adults, seem a little caricatured, but the illustrations are filled with whimsical ornamental backgrounds in pastel colors that seem to create a multi-layered, lacy space. The Onyx-Lit publishing house has announced another book with illustrations by the young artist – “The House That Floated” by Anna Nikolskaya. And in this moment on the platform boomstarter The crowdfunding project “Sills” has begun: readers are invited to participate in the publication of a book about the girl Lidochka, who cannot walk, but knows how to go around thresholds in her special chair on wheels. The story was composed by Anna Nikolskaya, and the illustrations for it were drawn by the same Anna Tverdokhlebova.

Tyapkin and Lyosha

Many experts and lovers of children's literature note that at the moment we are seeing a boom in reprints: Soviet children's books of the 50-80s. of the last century are published almost more than modern ones, while publishers strive to reproduce the book in its entirety: from text to illustrations, from layout to fonts (which, however, does not always work out due to new sanitary and hygienic requirements for book publishing products for children) . Editors of publishing houses choose not only the most famous, “mass” and widely circulated artists, like , but also pay attention to half-forgotten names and little-known texts.

The Rech publishing house, for example, which monthly offers its readers a good dozen old and new books, presented a reissue of Maya Ganina’s not-so-famous fairy tale story “Tyapkin and Lyosha” with illustrations. This is a fairy tale about one summer dacha adventure, the friendship of a little girl Lyuba, nicknamed Tyapkin, and the forest man Volodya, whom the girl calls “Lesha” (from the word “goblin”). Nika Goltz, who actually rarely turned to illustration modern authors, drew very delicate pictures for this book, made in only two colors - gray and emerald green. The fairy tale was published twice, in 1977 and 1988, and for each edition Nika Georgievna drew her own version of the illustrations. In the reissue, which was published in the “Reading with Biblioguide” series, the publishers collected all the artist’s illustrations created for both editions under one cover.

The theater opens

Half-forgotten by the general public, the illustrator of children's books, who died more than 30 years ago, returns to readers thanks to the Nigma publishing house. A. Brey's creativity is extremely diverse: he is considered one of the brightest representatives of the Moscow book graphics 20-30s last century, worked as an animal painter and as an illustrator of fairy tales, drew a lot for children's magazines and teaching aids, and in total illustrated about 200 children's books. In addition, he drew approximately 50 filmstrips, offering completely new technology images for them: in some of his filmstrips, the text was not placed under the picture, as usual, but was inscribed in the very space of the picture, for which the artist composed interesting “author’s fonts”.

Publishing old filmstrips in the form of books in an enlarged landscape format is one of the most common experiences recent years. Once again it is repeated by “Nygma”, which is releasing a former 1968 filmstrip with Emma Moszkowska’s poem “The Theater Opens” as a book, illustrated by A. Brey. The artist drew not only illustrations, but also texts, and placed all the polite words that the poetess invites little readers to remember in colored frames.

In the near future, the publishing house will release another book with illustrations by A. Brey - “Alenkin’s Brood” by A. Balashov, although this time without any experiments with filmstrips.

Friends! You can support our project so that we can develop it and publish more interesting original materials about the illustrated book.

When you see these drawings, you want to take it and get inside - like Alice through the Looking Glass. The artists who illustrated the favorite books of our childhood were real wizards. We bet that now you will not only see in bright colors the room in which your crib stood, but you will also hear the voice of your mother reading a bedtime story!

Vladimir Suteev

Vladimir Suteev himself was the author of many fairy tales (for example, “Who said MEOW?”, known from the wonderful cartoon). But most of all we love him for all these inimitable hedgehogs, bears and bunnies - we literally looked into books with Suteev’s animals!

Leonid Vladimirsky

Leonid Vladimirsky is the cutest Scarecrow in the world, the Wise Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion, as well as the rest of the company stomping around Emerald City along the road paved with yellow bricks. And no less cute Pinocchio!

Victor Chizhikov

Not a single issue of “Murzilka” and “ Funny pictures" He painted the world of Dragunsky and Uspensky - and once he took and painted the immortal Olympic Bear.

Aminadav Kanevsky

Actually, Murzilka himself was created by the artist with unusual name Aminadav Kanevsky. In addition to Murzilka, he owns a lot of recognizable illustrations by Marshak, Chukovsky, and Agnia Barto.

Ivan Semenov

The pencil from “Funny Pictures”, as well as many hand-drawn stories for this magazine, were drawn by Ivan Semyonov. In addition to our first comics, he also created a lot of excellent drawings for Nosov’s stories about Kolya and Mishka and the story about “Bobik visiting Barbos.”

Vladimir Zarubin

The coolest postcards in the world were drawn by Vladimir Zarubin. He also illustrated books, but collectors now collect these cute New Year’s squirrels and 8 March hares separately. And they do it right.

Elena Afanasyeva

The artist Elena Afanasyeva produced very characteristic (and so correct!) Soviet children. It's impossible to watch without nostalgia.

Evgeny Charushin

When the word “cute” did not yet exist, there was already the cutest artist: Evgeniy Charushin, the main expert on animal life. Impossibly fluffy kittens, shaggy bear cubs and disheveled sparrows - I just wanted to strangle them all... well, in my arms.

Anatoly Savchenko

And the funniest and most mischievous creatures in the world were created by Anatoly Savchenko: prodigal parrot Kesha, lazy Vovka in the Far Far Away Kingdom - and that same Carlson! Other Carlsons are simply wrong, that's all.

Valery Dmitryuk

Another king of enthusiasm and hooliganism is Valery Dmitryuk’s Dunno. And this artist equally successfully decorated adult “Crocodiles”.

Heinrich Valk

Another famous “crocodile” - Heinrich Valk - was remarkably able to capture the characters of boys and girls, as well as their parents. It is in his performance that we present “Dunno on the Moon”, “Vitya Maleev at school and at home”, “Hottabych” and Mikhalkov’s heroes.

Konstantin Rotov

Cartoonist Konstantin Rotov depicted the funniest and brightest (despite the fact that it was black and white) “The Adventures of Captain Vrungel.”

Ivan Bilibin

Prince Ivans and gray wolves, firebirds and frog princesses, golden cockerels and goldfish... In general, all folk tales and Pushkin's tales are forever Ivan Bilibin. Every detail of this intricate and patterned sorcery can be examined indefinitely.

Yuri Vasnetsov

And even before Pushkin, we were entertained by riddles, nursery rhymes, white-sided magpies, “Cat’s House” and “Teremok”. And this whole merry carousel shimmered with the colors of Yuri Vasnetsov.

Boris Dekhterev

When we grew up to “Thumbelina”, “Puss in Boots” and Perrault and Andersen, Boris Dekhterev transported us to their countries - with the help of several magic wands: colored pencils and watercolor brushes.

Eduard Nazarov

The most gorgeous Winnie the Pooh is by Shepard (although he is also good, so what), but still by Eduard Nazarov! He illustrated books and worked on our favorite cartoons. Speaking of cartoons, it was Nazarov who drew the funny heroes of the fairy tales “The Journey of an Ant” and “Once Upon a Time There Was a Dog.”

Vyacheslav Nazaruk

A smiling Little Raccoon, a friendly cat Leopold and a treacherous couple of mice, as well as a sad Mammoth who was looking for his mother - all this is the work of the artist Vyacheslav Nazaruk.

Nikolay Radlov

A serious artist Nikolai Radlov successfully illustrated children's books: Barto, Marshak, Mikhalkov, Volkov - and he illustrated them so well that they were reprinted a hundred times. His own book “Stories in Pictures” became especially famous.

Gennady Kalinovsky

Gennady Kalinovsky - author of very bizarre and unusual graphic drawings. His style of drawing was in perfect harmony with the mood English fairy tales- “Mary Poppins” and “Alice in Wonderland” were just “currier and stranger”! No less original are Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and other funny lads from “The Tales of Uncle Remus”.

G.A.V. Traugott

The mysterious “G.A.V. Traugott" sounded like the name of some magical hero of Andersen. In fact, it was a whole family contract of artists: father Georgy and his sons Alexander and Valery. And the heroes of the same Andersen turned out so light, slightly careless - they were about to take off and melt!

Evgeny Migunov

Our beloved Alice Kira Bulycheva is also Alice Evgenia Migunova: this artist illustrated literally all the books of the great science fiction writer.

Natalia Orlova

However, there was another Alice in our lives - from the world cartoon “The Secret of the Third Planet”. It was created by Natalia Orlova. Moreover main character the artist drew from her own daughter, and the pessimist Zeleny from her husband!

MDOBU Kindergarten №4

Volkhov

Artists – illustrators of children's books

teacher

Picture, especially for children younger age, is an extremely important pedagogical material, more convincing and poignant than the word, thanks to its real visibility.

E.A. Flerina

Everyone knows that children love to look at pictures, looking at them, the child imagines everything that is happening and

illustration sometimes has higher value than text.

A poorly illustrated children's book is uninteresting for a child and therefore unreadable.

Children's books have a lot of designs talented artists and many of them realized their talent precisely in illustration, each artist has his own vision of the world, his own artistic style, the same work is revealed differently in the work of each master.

Several generations of artists have dedicated themselves to this noble cause throughout their lives and created books that have become unique standards. I.Ya.Bilibin, E.I.Charushin, Yu.A.Vasnetsov, V.G.Suteev, B.A.Dekhterev, V.M.Konashevich, E.M.Rachev, N.E.Radlov, V. V. Lebedev, V. A. Milashevsky and others illustrated books on which more than one generation was brought up.

Vasnetsov Yuri Alekseevich (1900 – 1973)

Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov - folk artist and illustrator. His

pictures for folklore

All kids like songs, nursery rhymes and jokes (Ladushki, Rainbow-arc). He illustrated folk tales, tales of Leo Tolstoy, Pyotr Ershov, Samuil Marshak, Vitaly Bianki and other classics of Russian literature.

Bilibin Ivan Yakovlevich (1876 – 1942)

- Russian artist, book illustrator and theater designer. Bilibin illustrated a large number of fairy tales, including Pushkin. He developed his own style - “Bilibinsky” - a graphic representation taking into account the traditions of Old Russian and folk art, carefully drawn and detailed patterned contour drawing, colored with watercolors.

Fairy tales, epics, images ancient Rus' For many, they have long been inextricably linked with Bilibin’s illustrations.

Rachev Evgeniy Mikhailovich (1906 – 1997)

Rachev devoted his entire creative life to working with books, more than sixty years, and created hundreds beautiful drawings. Many books were published with Rachev’s illustrations, including: Prishvin M. M. “Pantry of the Sun” and “Golden Meadow”; Durov V.L. “My animals”; Mamin-Sibiryak D. M. “Alyonushkin’s Tales”; Saltykov-Shchedrin M. E. “Satirical tales.”

Dekhterev Boris Alexandrovich (1908 – 1993)

– People's artist, Soviet graphic artist, illustrator. Worked primarily in technology pencil drawing and watercolors. Dekhterev’s good old illustrations are a whole era in the history of children’s illustration; many illustrators call Boris Alexandrovich their teacher.

Dekhterev illustrated children's fairy tales by A. S. Pushkin, Vasily Zhukovsky, Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen, M. Lermontov, Ivan Turgenev, William Shakespeare.

Konashevich Vladimir Mikhailovich (1888 – 1963)

– Russian artist, graphic artist, illustrator. I started illustrating children's books by accident. In 1918, his daughter was three years old. Konashevich drew pictures for her for each letter of the alphabet. This is how “The ABC in Pictures” was published - the first book by V. M. Konashevich. Since then, the artist has become an illustrator of children's books. The main works of Vladimir Konashevich: - illustration of fairy tales and songs different nations, some of which were illustrated several times;

• fairy tales by G.H. Andersen, Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault; - “The Old Man of the Year” by V. I. Dahl;
• - works by Korney Chukovsky and Samuil Marshak. Last job the artist illustrated all the fairy tales of A. S. Pushkin .

Charushin Evgeniy Ivanovich (1901 – 1965)

- graphic artist, sculptor, prose writer and children's writer-animal painter. Most of the illustrations are done in the style of free watercolor drawings, with a little humor. Children like it, even toddlers. He is known for the illustrations of animals that he drew for his own stories: “About Tomka”, “Wolf and Others”, “Nikitka and His Friends” and many others. He also illustrated other authors: Chukovsky, Prishvin, Bianchi. The most famous book with his illustrations “Children in a Cage” by Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak.

Radlov Nikolai Ernestovich (1889 – 1942)

- Russian artist, art critic, teacher. Illustrator of children's books: Agnia Barto, Samuil Marshak, Sergei Mikhalkov, Alexander Volkov. Radlov drew with great pleasure for children. His most famous book is comics for kids “Stories in Pictures.” This is a book-album with funny stories about animals and birds. Years have passed, but the collection is still very popular. The stories in pictures were repeatedly republished not only in Russia, but also in other countries. On international competition children's book in America in 1938, the book received second prize.

Lebedev Vladimir Vasilievich (1891 – 1967)

V.V. Lebedev made the book with great respect for the child, striving for the ability to speak with him in a serious language, so that he could enter into the artist’s work and understand the patterns of book graphics. Especially bright and dynamic are Lebedev’s illustrations for S. Marshak’s books “Circus”, “Ice Cream”, “The Tale of stupid mouse", "Mustachioed Tabby", "A Multi-Colored Book", "Twelve Months", "Luggage". The books illustrated by the artist are distinguished by the simplicity and brightness of their images, a wonderful combination of pictorial and font forms.

Milashevsky Vladimir Alekseevich (1893 – 1976)

Vladimir Alekseevich illustrated and designed about 100 books for children and youth, but he never belonged to the so-called “children’s” artist. He illustrated works of classics of world literature and Soviet writers. Milashevsky always followed the rule: everything must be done for children as well as for adults, and even better. He never got along with children, didn’t lisp, didn’t imitate children’s drawings, didn’t try to speak to them in some special “childish” language that they supposedly understood.

All children love fairy tales: they love to listen to their grandmothers and mothers tell them, and those who can read read them themselves. They read and look at interesting, colorful pictures - illustrations that tell no less about the characters of the book than the text of the fairy tale itself. Who creates these illustrations? Well, of course, artists, illustrators.

Who are illustrators? These are artists who draw illustrations for books, helping to understand the content of the book, to better imagine its characters, their appearance, characters, actions, the environment in which they live...

From the drawing of the fairy tale illustrator, you can guess, even without reading it, whether the fairy tale heroes are evil or kind, smart or stupid. Fairy tales always contain a lot of imagination and humor, so the artist illustrating a fairy tale must be a bit of a wizard, have a sense of humor, love and understand folk art.

Let's meet some children's book illustrators.

Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov (1900 – 1973)

He began illustrating books for children in 1929. His book “Ladushki” in 1964 was awarded the highest award - the Ivan Fedorov Diploma, and at the International Exhibition in Leipzig it received silver medal. Yuri Alekseevich was wonderful artist- a storyteller, his work was characterized by kindness, calmness, and humor. Since childhood, he fell in love with a bright, cheerful Dymkovo toy and did not part with the images inspired by her, transferring them to the pages of books.

In Vasnetsov’s illustrations there is a simple-minded perception of the world, brightness and spontaneity: cats in pink skirts and hares in felt boots walk, a round-eyed bunny dances, lights burn comfortably in huts where mice are not afraid of a cat, where there is such an elegant sun and clouds that look like fluffy pancakes. All kids like his pictures for folk songs, nursery rhymes and jokes (“Ladushki”, “Rainbow-arc”). He illustrated folk tales, tales of Leo Tolstoy, Pyotr Ershov, Samuil Marshak, Vitaly Bianki and other classics of Russian literature.

Evgeny Mikhailovich Rachev (1906-1997)

It is probably difficult to find a person who loves children's books and at the same time is not familiar with the illustrations of Evgeny Mikhailovich Rachev. He can rightfully be called one of the most famous children's book artists of the last century.
Evgeniy Mikhailovich – animal artist, author of illustrations for Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Belarusian and others folk tales, fairy tales of the peoples of the North, fables of Ivan Krylov and Sergei Mikhalkov, fairy tales of Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak, works of Mikhail Prishvin, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Leo Tolstoy, Vitaly Bianki, etc.

His bright, kind and cheerful drawings are remembered immediately and forever. The very first fairy tales of childhood - “Kolobok”, “Ryaba Hen”, “Three Bears”, “Zayushkina’s Hut”, “Dereza Goat” - remain in memory with the illustrations of Evgeny Rachev.

“To make drawings for fairy tales about animals, of course, you need to know nature well. You need to know well what the animals and birds you are going to draw look like,” the artist wrote about his work.

But the animals that Evgeny Mikhailovich painted were not just foxes and wolves, hares and bears. Their images reflect human emotions, characters, and mood. "Because in fairy tales animals are like different people: good or evil, smart or stupid, mischievous, cheerful, funny” (E. Rachev).

Evgeny Ivanovich Charushin (1901 - 1965)

Evgeny Charushin famous artist and writer. In addition to his own books “Volchishko and Others”, “Vaska”, “About the Magpie”, he illustrated the works of Vitaly Bianki, Samuil Marshak, Korney Chukovsky, Mikhail Prishvin and others.

Charushin knew the habits and images of animals well. In his illustrations, he drew them with extraordinary precision and character. Each illustration is individual, each depicting a character with an individual character corresponding to a specific situation. “If there is no image, there is nothing to depict,” said Evgeny Charushin. “I want to understand the animal, convey its behavior, the nature of its movement. I'm interested in his fur. When a child wants to touch my little animal, I am glad. I want to convey the animal’s mood, fear, joy, sleep, etc. All this must be observed and felt.”

The artist has his own method of illustration - purely pictorial. He does not draw in outline, but with extraordinary skill, in spots and strokes. The animal may be depicted simply as a “shaggy” spot, but in this spot one can feel the alertness of the pose, the characteristic movement, and the peculiarity of the texture - the elasticity of the long and stiff hair raised on end, together with the downy softness of the thick undercoat.

The last book by E.I. Charushin became “Children in a Cage” by S.Ya. Marshak. And in 1965 he was posthumously awarded Golden medal on international exhibition children's books in Leipzig.

May Petrovich Miturich (1925 - 2008)

Mai Miturich is famous, first of all, as an excellent graphic artist and book illustrator. He is not just an artist, but also a traveler. Most big success brought him collaboration with Gennady Snegirev. Together they made trips to the North, Far East, after which stories and drawings for them appeared. The most successful books “About Penguins” and “Pinagor” were awarded diplomas for the best design.

May Petrovich is an excellent draftsman. He draws with wax crayons and watercolors. Miturich chooses a type of illustration in which neither color, nor volume, nor shadows violate the overall harmony of the drawing and the white sheet. He thoughtfully chooses 2-3 colors - yellow, blue, black - and paints without mixing colors. Avoids direct resemblance of color to nature; his color is conditional.

In stories about nature, soft tones and transparent watercolors enhance the feeling of silence and tranquility that a person experiences in nature.

The artist designed about 100 books for children. Among them are illustrations for the works of Korney Chukovsky, Samuil Marshak, Gennady Snegirev, Agnia Barto, Sergei Mikhalkov, Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll, Sergei Aksakov, Homer’s Odyssey, and Japanese Folk Tales.

Lev Alekseevich Tokmakov (1928 - 2010)

The creative activity of Lev Alekseevich Tokmakov is diverse: he not only devotes a lot of time to working with children's books, but also works in easel graphics - he created several dozen autolithographs and many drawings, he often appears in print as a journalist, critic and children's writer. And yet the main place in the artist’s work is occupied by book illustration- He has been drawing children's books for more than forty years. On the pages of books appear very strange creatures. Aren't these toys? Silver wolf, bear with balls for ears? The artist paints with a silhouette, a spot of color, and consciously uses the “man-made” technique. His drawings are completely devoid of everyday details and descriptiveness. A little blue paint - a lake, a little dark green - a forest. More interesting technique artist - his characters do not move, they are frozen in place. They are similar to their prototypes on splints and spinning wheels, which is where the Tokmak animals come from.

A true discovery in the field of children's book art were the illustrations he created for the books: Gianni Rodari "Tales on the Phone", Astrid Lindgren "Pippi Long stocking”, Irina Tokmakova “Rostik and Kesha”, Vitaly Bianki “Like an ant hurried home”, to the works of Valentin Berestov, Boris Zakhoder, Sergei Mikhalkov and many others.

Vladimir Grigorievich Suteev (1903 - 1993)

Vladimir Suteev is one of the first Soviet animators, director and screenwriter of cartoons. From the mid-40s he turned to children's books as an author of drawings and texts. Animation left its mark on the artist’s work: his animals became comical, amusing, amusing. We see a wealth of action. The main thing for him is to show the character of the hero, his mood. The drawings are filled with interesting details that highlight the gentle humor of the fairy tales. Most often, the artist uses part of the page for illustration, organically combining drawing and text.

Thanks to his pen, the reader received beautiful illustrations of the books by Gianni Rodari “The Adventures of Cipollino”, the Norwegian writer Alf Preisen’s “The Cheerful New Year”, Hungarian writer Agnes Balint “Gnome Gnomych and Raisin”, American writer Lilian Muur “Little Raccoon and the one who sits in the pond”.

Vladimir Grigorievich Suteev himself composed his fairy tales. “I am writing right hand, and I draw with my left hand. So the right one is mostly free, so I came up with an activity for it.” In 1952, the first book authored by Suteev himself, “Two Tales of Pencil and Paints,” was published. Since then, he has written scripts for cartoons, illustrated books, and acted as a director and screenwriter.

Among the published books with illustrations by Vladimir Suteev, such as: “What kind of bird is this?”, “Chicken and Duckling”, “The Magic Wand”, “Mustachioed-Striped”, “Uncle Styopa”, “Merry Summer”, “Merry New year”, “The Adventures of Pif”, “Aibolit”, “Apple”, “Cockroach”, “Ignorant Bear”, “Stubborn Frog”, “The Kitten Who Forgot How to Ask for Food”, “Only Trouble”, “Going Down” easier”, “Where is it better to be afraid?”, “The middle of the sausage”, “It’s not fair”, “A well-hidden cutlet”, “The shadow understands everything”, “Secret language”, “One morning”, “Daisies in January”, “ How the puppy Tyavka learned to crow,” etc.

Viktor Aleksandrovich Chizhikov (born September 26, 1935)

The artist turned his drawing into some kind of game, where there is not a real, but a conditional world, allowing him to build his fairy-tale country on a sheet of paper. It is impossible not to succumb to the charm of his heroes.

Viktor Aleksandrovich says: “You won’t interest me in color, I’m colorblind, I’m only interested in human character.”

The characters in his drawings always evoke a smile – kind and ironic. Easily recognizable, full of good humor and warmth, Chizhikov’s drawings became known to millions of readers of all ages, and in 1980 he invented and drew the bear cub Misha - the mascot of the Moscow olympic games, who immediately became one of the most popular cartoon characters in the country.

His illustrations adorned the books of almost all the classics of Soviet children's literature - Agnia Barto, Sergei Mikhalkov, Boris Zakhoder, Samuil Marshak, Nikolai Nosov, Eduard Uspensky and many other both domestic and foreign authors.

Tatyana Alekseevna Mavrina (1902-1996)

Born in Nizhny Novgorod, in 1921 she studied in Moscow at the Higher Art and Technical Workshops and Institute. The only one Soviet artist, awarded the H.H. Andersen Prize in 1976 for creativity in the field of children's illustration.

A talented and original artist has developed her own pictorial language. Its essence is in the open sound of color, in the ability to see the world broadly and decoratively, in the boldness of design and composition, and the introduction of fairy-tale and fantastic elements. Since childhood, seeing painted spoons and boxes, brightly colored toys, she was fascinated by a completely different, unknown technique, a completely different method of dyeing. Mavrina even includes text in her illustrations (the first and last lines are written by hand, the characters stand out and are outlined with a bright line). Paints with gouache.

Illustrating books for children occupied a special place in her work. The most famous design of fairy tales by A. S. Pushkin: “The Tale of dead princess and the Seven Bogatyrs”, “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, “Fairy Tales”, as well as the collections “By pike command", "Russian Fairy Tales", "To Far Far Away Lands". Tatyana Alekseevna Mavrina also acted as an illustrator of her own books: “Fairytale Beasts”, “Gingerbread is baked without falling into the cat’s paws”, “Fairytale ABC”.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich (1888-1963)

Fairy tales interested him all his life. He fantasized easily and with pleasure; he could illustrate the same fairy tale several times and each time in a new way.

Vladimir Konashevich drew illustrations for fairy tales of different nations: Russian, English, German, Chinese, African.

The first book with his illustrations, “The ABC in Pictures,” was published in 1918. It turned out by chance. The artist painted different things for his little daughter funny pictures. Then he began to draw pictures for each letter of the alphabet. One of the publishers saw these drawings, they liked them and were published.

Looking at his drawings, you feel how the artist himself laughs with the children.

He handles the book page very boldly, without destroying its plane, he makes it limitless, and depicts real and the most fantastic scenes with amazing skill. The text does not exist separately from the drawing; it lives in the composition. In one case it is marked with a frame of flower garlands, in another it is surrounded by a transparent small pattern, in the third it is subtly connected with surrounding color spots on a colored background. His drawings awaken not only imagination and humor, but also form an aesthetic sense and artistic taste. There is no deep space in Konashevich’s illustrations; the drawing is always close to the viewer.

The books that Konashevich designed were bright, festive and brought great joy to children.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1876-1942)

The artist paid great attention to the art of book design. He was one of the first who began to draw illustrations for Russian folk tales and epics.

He worked on small books, the so-called “notebook books,” and designed them so that everything in these books: text, drawings, ornaments, cover – formed a single whole. And the illustrations were given as much space as the text.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin developed a system of graphic techniques that made it possible to combine illustrations and design in one style, subordinating them to the plane of the book page.

Characteristic features of the Bilibin style: the beauty of patterned designs, exquisite decorative color combinations, subtle visual embodiment of the world, a combination of bright fabulousness with a sense of folk humor, etc.

He made illustrations for Russian folk tales “The Frog Princess”, “The Feather of Finist-Yasna Falcon”, “Vasilisa the Beautiful”, “Marya Morevna”, “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka”, “White Duck”, and for the fairy tales of A.S. Pushkin - “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel”, “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” and many others.

Publications in the Museums section

Pictures from childhood

Guides to the world of children's literature, thanks to which lines that are still incomprehensible to the little reader acquire bright and magical images. Children's book illustrators who choose this path, as a rule, remain faithful to it throughout creative life. And their readers, growing up, remain attached to pictures from increasingly receding childhood. Natalya Letnikova remembered the work of outstanding Russian illustrators.

Ivan Bilibin

Ivan Bilibin. "Firebird". Illustration for “The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf.” 1899

Boris Kustodiev. Portrait of Ivan Bilibin. 1901. Private collection

Ivan Bilibin. "Dead Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf." Illustration for “The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf.” 1899

A theater designer and teacher at the Academy of Arts, Bilibin created a unique author’s style, which was later called “Bilibinsky”. The artist’s works were distinguished by an abundance of ornaments and patterns, fabulous images while accurately following the historical appearance of Russian costume and household items. Bilibin drew the first illustration back in 1899 for “The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and Gray wolf" For forty years, the artist turned to Russian folk tales and epics. His drawings lived on the pages of children's books and on theater venues St. Petersburg, Prague, Paris.

Boris Dekhterev

Boris Dekhterev. Illustration for the work “Puss in Boots”. 1949 Photo: kids-pix.blogspot.ru

Boris Dekhterev. Year unknown. Photo: artpanorama.su

Boris Dekhterev. Illustration for the work “Little Red Riding Hood”. 1949 Photo: fairyroom.ru

Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots and Little Thumb, heroes of Alexander Pushkin's fairy tales, received watercolor portraits from the light brush of Boris Dekhterev. The famous illustrator created “the strict and noble appearance of a children’s book.” The professor at the Moscow State Art Institute named after Surikov devoted thirty years of his creative life not only to teaching students: Boris Dekhterev was the main artist at the Children's Literature publishing house and opened the door to the world of fairy tales for many generations of young readers.

Vladimir Suteev

Vladimir Suteev. Illustration for the work “Who Said Meow.” 1962 Photo: wordpress.com

Vladimir Suteev. Year unknown. Photo: subscribe.ru

Vladimir Suteev. Illustration for the work “Sack of Apples”. 1974 Photo: llibre.ru

Illustrations similar to those frozen on book pages footage from cartoons was created by Vladimir Suteev, one of the first Soviet animation directors. Suteev came up with not only picturesque images for the classics - fairy tales of Korney Chukovsky, Samuil Marshak, Sergei Mikhalkov - but also his own stories. While working in a children's publishing house, Suteev wrote about forty instructive and witty fairy tales: “Who Said Meow?”, “Sack of Apples,” “The Magic Wand.” These were books beloved by many generations of children, in which, as you would want in childhood, there were more pictures than text.

Victor Chizhikov

Victor Chizhikov. Illustration for the work “Doctor Aibolit”. 1976 Photo: fairyroom.ru

Victor Chizhikov. Year unknown. Photo: dic.academic.ru

Victor Chizhikov. Illustration for the work “The Adventures of Cippolino.” 1982 Photo: planetaskazok.ru

Only the master to create touching images for children's books could move an entire stadium to tears. This is what happened with Viktor Chizhikov, who drew the Olympic bear in 1980, and was also the author of illustrations for hundreds of children's books: Viktor Dragunsky, Mikhail Plyatskovsky, Boris Zakhoder, Hans Christian Andersen, Nikolai Nosov, Eduard Uspensky. For the first time in the history of Russian children's literature, collections of books with illustrations by the artist were published, including the twenty-volume set “Visiting V. Chizhikov.” “It has always been a joy for me to draw a children’s book”, - said the artist himself.

Evgeny Charushin

Evgeny Charushin. Illustrations for the work "Wolf". 1931 Photo: weebly.com

Evgeny Charushin. 1936 Photo: lib.ru

Evgeny Charushin. Illustrations for the work “Children in a Cage”. 1935 Photo: wordpress.com

Charushin had been reading books about animals since childhood, and his favorite was “The Life of Animals” by Alfred Brehm. Future artist I re-read it many times, and when I was older I went to a stuffed animal workshop near my house to draw from life. Thus was born an animal artist who, after graduating from the Academy of Arts, devoted his work to the design of children's stories about animals. Charushin's outstanding illustrations for Vitaly Bianchi's book were even acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery. And while working with Samuil Marshak on the book “Children in a Cage,” at the insistence of the writer, Charushin tried to write. This is how his stories “Tomka”, “Wolf” and others appeared.

Ivan Semenov

Ivan Semenov. Illustrations for the work “Dreamers”. 1960 Photo: planetaskazok.ru

Ivan Semenov. Year unknown. Photo: colory.ru

Ivan Semenov. Illustration for the work “Living Hat”. 1962 Photo: planetaskazok.ru

Creator of the famous Pencil and everything children's magazine“Funny Pictures” started with cartoons. For the sake of what he loved, he had to quit the Medical Institute, since he simply had no time to draw due to his studies. The artist's first childhood recognition came from illustrations for funny stories Nikolai Nosov’s “Dreamers” and “The Living Hat”, and the circulation of the book “Bobik Visiting Barbos” with illustrations by Semenov exceeded three million copies. In 1962, Ivan Semenov, together with Agnia Barto, toured an exhibition of Soviet children's books throughout England. By that time, the artist headed the editorial office of “Funny Pictures” and knew literally everything about children’s literature and the life of Soviet children.

Leonid Vladimirsky

Alexandra Volkova

“In fairy tales, animals are like different people: good or evil, smart or stupid, mischievous, cheerful, funny”, - Siberian artist Evgeny Rachev spoke about his work on children's books about animals. He received his first impressions of the animal world in the taiga, where he made sketches from life. His magical childhood impressions came to life in illustrations for simple stories: “Teremok”, “Kolobok”, “Cockerel - Golden Comb”, “Wolf and the Little Goats”. Fairy tales for the little ones became amazing thanks to Rachev’s imagination fairyland, where if you meet a wolf in a caftan, you won’t be surprised.