Illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, 1959
Alice and Martin Provensen, The Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends, 1959
From “The Happy Prince” to “The Beauty and the Beast,” by way of feminism and art history.
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from A Visit to William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard Illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen 1982
Beloved couple, Alice and Martin Provensen, are famous for illustrating more than 40 children's books together, many of which they also wrote. They are also responsible for bringing to life Kellogg's Tony the Tiger.
No discussion about the innovations and influences of the 1950's storybook styles would be complete without mentioning Alice and Martin Provensen. In fact, all the quotes from Henry C. Pitz's 1959 article in American Artist that I referenced over the past week were actually from his article showcasing the talented couple. "A new flavor has been imparted to our illustration," wrote Pitz in 1959, "something strange and provocative, something that stirs old racial memories and at the same time hints at new exciting forms." Pitz marveled at the development of the Provensens' style. "Their combined talents are fresh and new, and although their first book is only twelve years old, their contributions have been of delightful importance." How true. The Provensens initially produced pleasing storybook art that reflected their background in animation. These early examples from 1948 hardly hint at what was to come in just a few short years. By the early 50's the Provensens' work was beginning to display what Henry C. Pitz called "a fertile stock of invention, and a nagging sense of dissatisfaction [that] has spurred them to observe, study and experiment." I've posited this past week that the storybook artists influenced popular culture with their stylizations. I could hardly give you a more concrete example of that influence than the Provensens' 1953 design of 'Tony the Tiger' and other cereal box mascots for Kelloggs. The incorporation of the storybook style into mass-marketed packaging and subsequent spin-offs (animated tv ads, print ad campaigns) fused the storybook style to a wide range of visual media and encouraged a broad range of commecial artists to adopt it. The Provensens, meanwhile, were moving on. "Although they have done advertising and magazine illustration," writes Pitz, "they prefer the less frantic pace and less ephemeral climate of the book field." Again, Henry Pitz' remarks perfectly describe the next stage in the Provensens' growth. "If one must pin an obvious label on their work it would be 'modern', and yet the critic, aware of the long perspective of the world's art would say in the same breath, 'how traditional' ". "Their vocabulary of decorative forms and motifs is an extended one, enlarged by scrutiny of many of the world's cultures and made supple by constant practice." The Provensens were enthusiastically experimental with media as well as style. "They do not have a routine, stage-by-stage method," wrote Pitz. "They begin painting as soon as a design-image has quickened their minds; the first attack may be the successful one, or the fourth or the fifth." Reinforcing my belief that the next generation of illustrators would be affected by their exposure to the storybook style is this passage: "Certainly the Provensens' work has grown in power and subtlety. Earlier influences now seem to be entirely absorbed, and their note is independent and confident. In fact, they are having their influence on others now, for they are among the most imitated illustrators in art school circles." As his article (and this series of posts) draws to a close, Henry C. Pitz confirms what I already knew growing up in a world full of books, cartoons, and packaging imagery that can trace its roots back to the 1950's storybook styles: "The commercial success of [the Provenses'] books is a heartening sign, for it proves the existence of a sizable audience receptive to excellent picture-making." "Their success is more than a personal one. It indicates that the more than three decades in upsurge in the American illustrated book has lost none of its vitality, and is reaching a new level of excellence and touching new audiences." * My Alice and Martin Provensen Flickr set.
Ancient Greek mythology meets mid-century art.
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What is a Color? - written & illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen (1967).
Ancient Greek mythology meets mid-century art.
Al principio de esta serie de entradas dedicadas al Beowulf que emprendí y nunca acabé con Javier Olivares, mencionaba que mi relación con el poema heroico anglosajón en el que nos inspirábamos venía de la infancia. Y así es, lo descubrí de niño en un libro que rondaba por casa de mi tío: Mitos y leyendas (Gaisa, 1968), de Anne Terry White, ilustrado por Alice y Martin Provensen. El volumen glosaba muchas de las grandes historias fantásticas que formaban parte de la tradición occidental, desde la Grecia clásica hasta las gestas medievales. El texto ponía aquellos relatos al alcance de un niño, pero lo que de verdad me hacía volver una y otra vez a aquel libro eran las increíbles ilustraciones de los Provensen. Algunas me producían verdadero terror. Ésas eran las mejores. Hoy sé que aquel libro me reveló dos cosas que desde entonces me han acompañado: el ideal heroico, en una versión mucho más desnuda y cruel que la que recibía al mismo tiempo a través de los estrafalarios tebeos de Marvel y DC, y el gusto por una estética estilizada, plana y no realista, casi en las antípodas precisamente de la que proponían esos mismos tebeos de Marvel y DC. Entre todas las historias de aquel volumen mágico -que todavía conservo, por cierto-, mis dos favoritas eran la de Beowulf y la de Sigfrido y los Nibelungos. Con la primera ya intenté saldar mi deuda. Con la segunda me atreveré cuando encuentre algún valiente que quiera acompañarme. Cuando al cabo de los años le propuse a Javier que adaptásemos el Beowulf, descubrí que él también conocía Mitos y leyendas y que era un gran fan de los Provensen. Aquello me confirmó que Javier entendía exactamente cómo quería yo que fuera ese libro. Os dejo algunas de las imágenes de Mitos y leyendas. Beowulf: Sigfrido: Teseo y el Minotauro: Perseo y Medusa: Jasón y los Argonautas: La canción de Rolando:
I get frustrated by the limitations of my scanner. Illustrations often spread across both pages of a book, and its difficult to show that with a scan. So now I’m trying out a new approach …
Ancient Greek mythology meets mid-century art.
I get frustrated by the limitations of my scanner. Illustrations often spread across both pages of a book, and its difficult to show that with a scan. So now I’m trying out a new approach …
Timeless visual exorcism of our greatest moral shortcomings, bridging antiquity and today.
Timeless visual exorcism of our greatest moral shortcomings, bridging antiquity and today.
THE ILIAD AND THE ODYSSEY (1956) Alice & Martin Provensen
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I am a big fan of the work of children's book illustrators Martin and Alice Provensen. . I especially love their beautifully designed books, The Iliad and The Odyssey and Myths and Legends. It's difficult to imagine how a creative team could have been any closer than the Provensens. The two came from very similar backgrounds: both born in Chicago, Martin and Alice each moved to California when they were twelve. There they attended high school and college, then went to work for Hollywood studios (Martin at Disney and Alice at Walter Lantz). During World War II, they met and got married, then moved to Washington where they both held jobs supporting the war effort. In 1950 the Provensens purchased an abandoned farm in upstate New York, far from city life. They moved two drawing tables into a barn and started working together, back to back. Their excellent book, A Year at Maple Hill Farm, describes their sweet life on the farm. Their styles blended together and for nearly 40 years the couple worked so closely that no one could distinguish who had contributed what. In response to persistent questions Alice simply said, “we were a true collaboration. Martin and I really were one artist.” No one ever saw their works in process. Living and working together in one room there was very little space for privacy or egos. The two seemed to share everything, completing each other's thoughts and brush strokes. Yet, I was charmed to read that there was one small part of their process that the Provensens decided to keep private from each other. When they were just beginning to come up with an idea, they would sometimes tie a string across the room and hang a sheet or blanket between their two tables. As Alice recalled, "Once in a while one of us may have had an idea we were just developing that we didn't want the other person to see just yet....We would string a curtain up between our desks." Even though the barrier was purely symbolic-- a flimsy drapery that could easily be breached at any time-- it still had psychological importance. In those first fragile moments of the creative process, when you are trying to coax an idea into existence, words and voices-- or even a second set of eyes-- might scare it off. The premature constraints imposed by an existing vocabulary could rob the idea of its potential. People share all kinds of things. You might work together all day in the studio, as nekkid as Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and never blush once. But the nakedness of a new idea-- that's a little too personal, and sometimes needs to be kept concealed.
Alice and Martin Provensen...a love story in illustration! You can see my complete Pinterest board of their work here. This American couple married during WWII and went on to illustrate more than 40 children's books together, writing almost half of them. They won multiple awards, including the Caldecott Medal. Their...
From "Karen's Opposites" by Alice and Martin Provensen, 1963.
Hugo Horita Alice and Martin Provensen, The Color Kittens, 1949 (one of my favorite books when I was child!) Celestino Piatti Dale Maxey, back cover of Nurseryland Annual, 1969 Vladimir Pivovarov, 1971, thanks to polny_shkaf N. Radlov, 1990 Gwen Keraval, Oscar et l'impala unknown author, from L'enfant et la lecture Vyaceslav Legkobit Anthony Browne, Willy's Pictures Sandra Boynton, Chlöe and Maude, 1984, thanks to Vintage Kids' Books My Kid Loves Yusuke Yonezu Nicola Bayley, Parrot Cat, 1984 Kurt Vargo for Art Direction Magazine, 1980s
איורים מסביב לעולם של מאיירים מרחיב העולם ומישראל. לטייל בתוך איור
A Giant Golden Book, 1953. Illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen.
Timeless visual exorcism of our greatest moral shortcomings, bridging antiquity and today.
From "Karen's Opposites" by Alice and Martin Provensen, 1963.
Ancient Greek mythology meets mid-century art.
From “The Happy Prince” to “The Beauty and the Beast,” by way of feminism and art history.
