Lisbeth Zwerger – Premier Children's Storyteller
The Award-winning Book Illustrator Tells Her Stories Through Art
Jul 13, 2009
With the tireless support of her spouse, children's book writer/artist John Rowe, as well as her graphic-designer father and her mother, Austrian-born Zwerger had her first book, The Strange Child, published in 1977. That and her other early works were influenced by 19th-century English illustrators such as Arthur Rackham (Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, 1906), which was appropriate since she has what she's called "a romantic tendency," preferring to illustrate classic stories rather than pen her own.
For this reason, she's dedicated most of her career to fairy and folk tales. But she also has made room for such venerable authors as Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol) and O. Henry ("The Gift of the Magi").
Zwerger's Artistic Style
For much of her career, she stuck to pen-and-ink and a limited palette of watercolors. The Swineherd, for example, is done mostly in purples and browns. Her soft, gentle lines and skilled use of white space achieved an effect which ALA Booklist described as "misty, ethereal."
Recent works have demonstrated the use of brighter colors and the development of a more layered look. The artist also has experimented with different interpretations of the source material. In her "fanciful yet reverent" illustrations for Noah's Ark, the characters aren't depicted in Biblical (ancient) attire; they wear skirts, blazers, berets and close-toed shoes. Noah sports a Victorian mustache!
Lisbeth Takes on Big Books
In 1996, Zwerger moved into "new territory" with The Wizard of Oz, based on the first volume of L. Frank Baum's classic series. Due to the length of the story, there are sometimes two consecutive pages of just text, no art; some pages have only small drawings in the corner. The artist still found the project quite challenging.
She had "no 'seriously' illustrated edition" and hadn't watched all of MGM's 1939 Judy Garland musical film; she thus was able to develop a fresh interpretation. But Baum had filled his text with precise details, making Zwerger feel "almost superfluous." Plus, the prospect of painting every Emerald City scene in shades of green nearly brought the whole thing to a halt.
Then, the project was saved by a simple yet brilliant idea. Upon opening the book, the reader finds a pair of green-tinted glasses and this message:
The Great Wizard Oz has decreed that you must wear them when you enter his wonderful Emerald City.
And so Zwerger was freed up to use as many colors as she desired to create her odd-looking characters. Dorothy and most other "humans" have fairly normal physical proportions, but others, such as the Tin Woodsman, are gangly with overlong arms. Scarecrow more closely resembles a fat snowman. It all adds up to, as the dust jacket states perfectly, "a view of Oz that is fantastical yet familiar." The Washington Post hailed Zwerger's The Wizard of Oz as "the loveliest edition imaginable."
Awards For "One of the Very Best Illustrative Artists"
Lisbeth Zwerger has collected every major award in her field, some multiple times. Noah's Ark, Little Red Cap and The Wizard of Oz all were selected by the New York Times as "Best Illustrated Book of the Year." She took home two gold medals from Bratislava's International Biennial of Illustration and three graphic prizes from the Bologna International Children's Book Fair. And, though not yet 60 years old, she's already received the coveted Hans Christian Andersen medal for lifetime achievement.
Zwerger continues doing what she loves, and she takes her time with it, turning out perhaps one book each year. This allows folks just discovering her work plenty of time to catch up.
Sources:
 |
