Illustration &Trnka 30 May 2009 08:24 am
Trnka’s Grimm
- Jiri Trnka is one of my heroes. His sense of design is as gorgeous as his puppets. There’s a feminine delicacy wrapped around a very masculine strength. The same is true of his puppet films. Look at any frame of The Archangel Gabriel or Midsummer Night’s Dream.
We don’t often see Trnka’s illustrations, so I’ve decided, for my own entertainment, to post a few of those in the Grimm’s Fairy Tales book. You can still find copies of this republished many times over. (I suspect the manuscript and illustrations are in public domain.)
Here are about half of the book’s illustrations:
Red Riding Hood
Rapunzel
Iron Hans
The Master Thief | The Grave Mound
Godfather Death
Godfather Death
The Six Swans
The Spirit in the Bottle | The Wishing Table, the Gold Ass & the Cudgel
The Bremen town Musicians
The Valiant Tailor
The Youth Who Could Not Shudder
The Nix of the Mill Pond
on 30 May 2009 at 11:21 pm 1.Ray Kosarin said …
These are knockouts. Trnka seems never to make a false step. What strikes me seeing these is how startlingly versatile he is as an illustrator and designer–these illustrations alone span territory wide ranging as Daumier, Chagall, Shahn, even a dash of Matisse–and Trnka’s sculptures, of course, delve further still.
But perhaps even more remarkable is that there isn’t hint of gimmick or swagger about any of them: the driving spirit of these works are the characters and their predicaments–not the artist and his talent. Humility may well be the greatest part of genius.
on 31 May 2009 at 3:42 am 2.Eddie Fitzgerald said …
Wow! Ray Kosarin said it all. Beautiful color work!
on 31 May 2009 at 10:46 am 3.Jack Ruttan said …
Awe-struck. Thanks!
on 31 May 2009 at 3:48 pm 4.Esteban said …
Thanks! He is one of my heroes too.
on 01 Jun 2009 at 11:23 am 5.Studio M.M.E. said …
I’m so happy to find this illustrator! As a fairy tale illustrator myself, it’s nice to find another colleague.
on 23 Sep 2015 at 3:10 am 6.Cvecara Beograd said …
I as well believe thence , perfectly pent post! .