Archive for the ‘illustrtation’ Category

Tuesday, December 19th, 2023

Magazine Cartoons: Reginald Birch and St Nicholas Magazine

St Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch

A MAGAZINE FOR CHILDREN

In 1872, Scribner’s began publishing St Nicholas Magazine, a sister publication to The Century aimed at an audience between the ages of 5 and 18. As Linda Young points out in her excellent article on St Nicholas, in the late 19th and early 20th century, there was no real distinction between young children and teenagers. Children were considered children until they married or went away to college. Features "For The Little Folk" ran in St Nicholas side by side with articles on natural history or science intended for older readers. When it came to fiction, the subjects ranged from adventure stories about far-away lands to fairy tales and historical romance. St Nicholas was the premiere magazine of its type, and although it was aimed at children, it counted many adults among its readership.

St Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch

But the main reason why we’re interested in St Nicholas is the illustrations. Scribner’s had access to many of the best artists of the day… Arthur Rackham, Harrison Cady, Maxfield Parrish, Willy Pogany, Charles Dana Gibson, Palmer Cox and Howard Pyle, among many others. But no artist was as closely associated with the look of St Nicholas as Reginald Birch.

St Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchReginald Birch was born in 1856 in London, England. At the age of 14, he relocated to San Francisco, CA where he prepared wood block theater posters in his father’s shop. In 1873, Birch attended the Royal Academy in Munich and upon his return to America, he settled in as an illustrator in New York City.

Today, Birch may be forgotten, but his contribution to our American cultural identity certainly isn’t. At St Nicholas Magazine Birch took the character of Santa Claus, created by Thomas Nast in the 1862 Christmas Issue of Harper’s Weekly, and refined it into the jolly bearded character in the red suit that we all think of today.

St Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch

1906 Christmas cover by Reginald Birch

Little Lord Fauntleroy Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchReginald Birch illustrated a wide variety of poems and stories for St Nicholas, but perhaps the most famous was Frances Hodgson Burnett’s "Little Lord Fauntleroy". Following Burnett’s vivid description, Birch created the iconic image of the precocious little boy in curls wearing a black velvet suit with lace collar. This image became the basis for the character Buster Brown, and was widely lampooned in parodies casting Burnett’s wunderkind as a spoiled brat or monster child, like Eddie Munster. The image of the enfant terrible in the Buster Brown outfit has entered our cultural subconscious to the point where most of us don’t even realize where it came from… but it came from Reginald Birch.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

Freddie Bartholomew as Little Lord Fauntleroy

By the beginning of World War I, Birch’s Victorian pen and ink style was beginning to look dated. Demand for his services began to decline, and by 1930, he was penniless. He enjoyed an "Indian Summer" as a book illustrator in the late 30s until his failing eyesight forced him to retire in 1941. He passed away in 1943.

Here is a fantastic story written by St Nicholas editor, Tudor Jenks and illustrated in the distinctive style by Reginald Birch. Notice how Birch juggles the text in the layouts, his superb draughtsmanship and control of perspective, and the expressive posing of his characters.

St Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch
St Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch
St Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch
St Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch
St Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch
St Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch
St Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch
St Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch
St Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch
St Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch
St Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch
St Nicholas Magazine Reginald BirchSt Nicholas Magazine Reginald Birch

A SELECTION OF IMAGES FROM
THE CHRISTMAS, 1910 ISSUE

To finish out this post, here is a sampling of the sort of illustration and cartooning that filled the pages of a typical issue of St. Nicholas Magazine.

St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910
St Nicholas Magazine December 1910

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

Magazine CartoonsMagazine Cartoons

This posting is part of the online Encyclopedia of Cartooning under the subject heading, Magazine Cartoons.
IllustrationIllustration

This posting is part of a series of articles comprising an online exhibit spotlighting Illustration.

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Friday, September 30th, 2022

Illustration: Gustaf Tenggren and the Genesis of the Golden Book Style

Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book

Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again BookGustaf Tenggren Tell It Again BookIn the twenties, Gustav Tenggren had been paid handsomely for his work. At Disney, his position guaranteed steady work. But the wartime economy changed all that. Publishers were no longer able to pay him to work a week or more on a single painting and jobs were scarce. He was forced to simplify his style.

While at Disney, Tenggren chaffed under the bit of anonymity. It’s said that Walt instructed his artists, "If you’re going to sign a name to your artwork, spell it ‘Walt Disney’." But Tenggren defiantly maintained his individuality, signing many of his key paintings for Pinocchio. He left the studio under unhappy circumstances, and was bitter about the whole episode. But he had learned one thing from Walt… the power of branding one’s self.

Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book

Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again BookGustaf Tenggren Tell It Again BookTenggren resolved that he would never again waste his skills building a reputation for someone else. He boldly built his name into the masthead of his first major publication after leaving Disney. No longer was it Andersen’s Fairy Tales or Tales By The Brothers Grimm… It was The Tenggren Tell-It-Again Book. This led to a series of self-titled books sprinkled throughout his career… Tenggren’s Story Book, Tenggren’s Jack & The Beanstalk, Tenggren’s Bedtime Stories, Tenggren’s Farm Stories, and many others.

This particular book is amazing, because it shows Tenggen’s thought process and refinement gelling into what would become the classic "Golden Book style". (Click on the Three Little Pigs images above for a vivid example.) He simplifies by going back to his roots… combining the character designs of his mentor John Bauer with the colored pencil and watercolor style of his successor on the Bland Tomtar Och Troll series, Einar Norelius. It’s fascinating to compare this new streamlined style with the techniques of traditional golden age illustration. See how Tenggren has distilled the essence of the earlier attempts into a clear and simple presentation that still has plenty of beauty and balance.

Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book

For inspiration, Tenggen goes all the way back to his roots… the work of his mentor, John Bauer. Here is one of Tenggren’s illustrations…

Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book

And here is one by Bauer from the Swedish Christmas annual, Bland Tomtar Och Troll

John Bauer

He also appears to be familiar with the work of his successor on the Bland Tomtar Och Troll series, Einar Norelius. Here is Tenggren…

Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book

And here is Norelius…

Einar Norelius

Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again BookGustaf Tenggren Tell It Again BookBut halfway through Tenggren’s Tell It Again Book comes a huge breakthrough in design. Instead of the full page plates, Tenggren begins to float his characters over the white of the page, wrapping the text around the compositions. Background elements are reduced to small islands on the page, rather than extending out to the edges of a square bounding box. When I first got this book, I wondered why Tenggren had changed format halfway through. Clearly one reason was to save time and streamline the work of producing so many illustrations for a single book. But there was an aesthetic precedent to it as well. The answer has been hanging on my bedroom wall since I was a little boy!

Like Tenggren, my Grandmother was Swedish. In the early 1920s, she took my father to Sweden to visit his Grandparents. It was the only time he was able to meet them, since he lived in Peterborough, Canada, a very long sea voyage away from their farm in Goteborg, Sweden. My great grandparents gave my father a gift to take home with him to remind him of the visit- this Swedish folk art picture…

Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book

When I was born, my father gave it to me to hang in my bedroom, and it’s been there ever since. Notice the similarity between the forward pitched perspective, the staging of the characters in clear profile silhouettes, and the simple rendering of the figures over the white of the paper on this print and the Tenggren illustrations that follow…

Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book
Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again Book

Gustaf Tenggren Tell It Again BookGustaf Tenggren Tell It Again BookTenggren had discovered a way to simplify and refine his illustrations even further. Instead of busy backgrounds full of details, he used just enough information to place the characters, and focused his attention on composing the figures. Immediately after publishing this book, Tenggren produced The Poky Little Puppy, the book that was the model for the hundreds of Little Golden Books that followed over the next seventy years. By going back to his roots and synthesizing his Swedish cultural upbringing, Tenggren invented a style that now seems to us to be quintessentially American.

This is a perfect example of how immigrant artists of all kinds suited their artistic voice to their new lives in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. Carlo Vinci’s Italian heritage resulted in a superhero mouse who sang opera. Bill Tytla’s Eastern European roots helped him summon a devil in Fantasia. And Milt Gross’ Jewish upbringing expressed itself in comic celebrations of the ethnic vitality of New York City.

The melting pot of American culture sure is rich with cartoons!

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

IllustrationIllustration

This posting is part of a series of articles comprising an online exhibit spotlighting Illustration.

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Wednesday, September 21st, 2022

Illustration: Mabel Lucie Attwell’s Peter Pan and Wendy

Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy

Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and WendyMabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and WendyThere often seems to be a disconnect between the illustrators Walt Disney hired to do inspirational artwork for his films and the designs he actually ended up using. On Snow White, Disney hired the amazing painter, Gustaf Tenggren; but his instructions to him were to paint in the style of Arthur Rackham. For Peter Pan, he hired the illustrator David Hall, but the film itself doesn’t resemble his work at all. Instead, it’s actually closer to being a "Disneyfication" of Mabel Lucie Attwell’s illustrations for the 1921 edition of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan & Wendy.

Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and WendyMabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and WendyAttwell was born in 1879 and received some education at the Regent School of Art and Heatherley’s School of Art in London, but she grew bored with her academic studies and dropped out to focus on her own interests… painting cherubic children and fairies. Her work wasn’t very warmly received at first by galleries and agents, but when her first batch of paintings sold out in three days, they became much more enthusiastic. Attwell illustrated greeting cards and children’s books, the most famous of which we are featuring today, Peter Pan & Wendy.

Disney didn’t appropriate Attwell’s baby faced characters, but he did use some of the same details of costume and setting, and placed the emphasis of his visual storytelling on many of the same elements. Attwell’s designs lean a bit too heavily on formula, but there is a distinctive delicate appeal to her style. Enjoy.

Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

IllustrationIllustration

This posting is part of a series of articles comprising an online exhibit spotlighting Illustration.

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