Brian Lawrence Wildsmith (22 January 1930 – 31 August 2016) was a British painter and children's book illustrator. He won the 1962 Kate Greenaway Medal for British children's book illustration, for the wordless alphabet book ''ABC''. In all his books, the illustrations are always as important as the text. For his contribution as a children's illustrator, Wildsmith was a runner-up for the

Hans Christian Andersen Medal The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are two literary awards given by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), recognising one living author and one living illustrator for their "lasting contribution to children's literature". T ...

in 1966 and 1968.

Biography

Brian Wildsmith was born in 1930 in Penistone, a small market town in the West Riding, now in South Yorkshire, England. He was educated at the De La Salle College for Boys in Sheffield, but from the age of seventeen studied at the Barnsley School of Art (1946–1949). It was also while he was seventeen that he met Aurélie Ithurbide, daughter of the chef at Wentworth Woodhouse, whom he would later marry. From Barnsley he won a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he studied for three years (1949–1952), and where Sir William Coldstream was among his teachers. On leaving the Slade School he did National Service in the British Army. In 1955 he married his wife Aurélie, and in the same year began teaching at

Selhurst High School Selhurst High School for Boys is a name that has been given to two separate schools in England that existed at different times, but occupied the same site. The former school had been a grammar school that closed in 1988, the latter was the relaun ...

(1955–1957). At this time he began designing book jackets for the publisher John Murray and others, and line illustrations for children's books published by

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel ...

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

and others. His work as a line draughtsman continued from 1957 to 1964. From 1960 to 1965 he also taught for one day a week at Maidstone College of Art (later part of

Kent Institute of Art & Design The Kent Institute of Art & Design (KIAD, often ) was an art school based across three campuses in the county of Kent, in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the amalgamation of three independent colleges: Canterbury College of Art, Maidstone ...

, now University for the Creative Arts). Wildsmith's first love was for painting and he was eager to illustrate books in color. Mabel George of

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

, whom he first met in 1957, gave him his first opportunity when she commissioned from him, as an experiment, some illustrations for ''

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'' (1961). When the experiment was a success, she commissioned ''ABC'' (1962), which won the Greenaway Medal. Since then he has worked with a succession of sympathetic editors, including

Antony Kamm Antony Kamm (2 March 1931–11 February 2011) was an English publisher, author, historian and cricketer. Biography Antony Kamm was born in Hampstead, London, the son of George Kamm, a founder director of Pan Books and his wife Josephine, ...

and Ron Heapy. From 1971 Wildsmith lived in France at Castellaras, a hill village near Cannes and

Grasse Grasse (; Provençal oc, Grassa in classical norm or in Mistralian norm ; traditional it, Grassa) is the only subprefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region on the French Riviera. In 2017, the co ...

, with his wife, Aurélie, and their four children, Clare, Rebecca, Anna and Simon. His son, Simon (b. 1965), is a printmaker, and lives near Cahors. Wildsmith is considered as one of the greatest children's illustrators. The British Library Association recognised his first book, the wordless alphabet book ''ABC'' (Oxford, 1962), with the Kate Greenaway Medal for the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. Four of his works were subsequently commended runners-up for the Medal, all published by Oxford University Press: ''Oxford Book of Poetry for Children'', edited by Edward Blishen, 1963; ''The Lion and the Rat: A Fable'', by Jean de La Fontaine (1668), adapted from

Aesop Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cre ...

, also 1963; ''Birds'', 1967; and ''The Owl and the Woodpecker'', 1971. Each page of ''Birds'' illustrates a term such as "gaggle of geese". ''The Owl and the Woodpecker'' is a story both written and illustrated by Wildsmith. The biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award conferred by the

International Board on Books for Young People The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) is an international non-profit organization committed to bringing books and children together. The headquarters of the IBBY are located in Basel, Switzerland. IBBY history In 1952, Jella Lepm ...

is the highest recognition available to a writer or illustrator of children's books. Wildsmith was one of two runners-up for the inaugural illustration award in 1966 and one of three runners-up in 1968. In 1994 a Brian Wildsmith Art Museum was opened in Izu-kogen, in the south of

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan. About one and a half million people visited an exhibition of his work in 2005. Eight hundred of his paintings are on loan to the museum. In 2017

The Story Museum The Story Museum is a museum in Oxford, England. It aims to encourage education and support community engagement by exploring all forms of stories. It is a registered charity under English law. As of 7 July 2018 the exhibitions of the museum w ...

, UK, ran an exhibition called ''Wild About Colour'' featuring a number of pieces by Wildsmith alongside works by contemporary illustrators who had been influenced by his use of colour. The exhibition was curated by Helen Cooper and displayed the work of Shaun Tan and

Korky Paul Hamish Vigne Christie "Korky" Paul (born 1951) is a British illustrator of children's books. He was born and raised in Rhodesia, but now lives in Oxford, England. His work, characteristically executed with bright watercolour paint and pen and ink ...

amongst others. Wildsmith died in

, France, in 2016.

Selected works

* ''ABC'' (Oxford, 1962) —winner of the

Greenaway Medal The Kate Greenaway Medal is a British literary award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) ...

* ''1 2 3'' (Oxford, 1965) * ''Birds'' (Oxford, 1967) * ''The Circus'' (Oxford, 1970) * ''The Owl and the Woodpecker'' (Oxford, 1971) * ''Little Wood Duck'', Oxford University Press, Oxford 1972. * ''A Christmas story'' (Oxford, 1989) * ''The Easter story'' (Oxford, 1993) * ''Saint Francis'' (Oxford, 1997) * ''Exodus'' (Oxford, 1998) * ''Jesus'' (Oxford, 2000) * ''Mary'' (Oxford, 2007) * ''Moses'' (Oxford, 2007)

Works about Wildsmith

* Brian Wildsmith and Edna Edwards, ''Focus on Brian Wildsmith, the great illustrator talks about making images for children'' (The Center for Cassette Studies, 1974), 50-minute sound recording) * Stephanie Nettell, "Crossing barriers: an interview with Brian Wildsmith", in ''Children's Book Supplement to British Book News'' (March 1987), pp. 2–5 * Brian Wildsmith, ''Brian Wildsmith (1930- ) A Short Autobiography'' (1988. Gale Research, Detroit) * D. Martin, "Brian Wildsmith", in Douglas Martin, ''The Telling Line Essays On Fifteen Contemporary Book Illustrators'' (1989), pp. 126–47 * ''Brian Wildsmith'' xhibition catalogue, Tokyo(1995)

Notes

References

External links