British Delights

Play with me, 1984

Among the many talented artists discovered in the past two years thanks to Animalarium, 

Edward Bawden is definitely one of my favorites. I don't recall where I first saw his work, 

but I was immediately captivated by the style of this great British painter, illustrator, 

printmaker and graphic artist. Thanks to The Visual Telling of Stories for many

of the high resolution images gracing this post.

Church and Dove wallpaper design, 1927

Book covers for Faber & Faber, 1934-40

Illustrations for Fortnum & Mason

Bawden created many illustrations for Fortnum & Mason during the 1930s-40s. 

In 2007 Mainstone Press published the limited edition volume Entertaining A La Carte, 

which included over 200 of these beautiful images, and the same company has recently 

produced One Lump or Two?, a book dedicated to Bawden's drawings for Twinings Tea. 

Linocuts for Aesop's Fables, 1970

Kew Gardens, thanks to BibliOdissey

And aren't his cats just lovely?

Monday Matticchio - Strong Jockey

Sunday Safari - Hello Rabbit!

Kevin Sloan 

 Annegert Fuchshuber, illustration from Zwei und mehr

 Marion Peck, Bunny

Marc Burckhardt, Mirror 

Suzanne Proulx

Claude Lalanne, Petit Lapin debout à Collerette

 John Burningham, illustration from Mr. Grumpy's Outing, 1970,

thanks to the fantastic flickr of flamenconut

Rop van Mierlo, illustration from Wild Animals, thanks to It's Nice That

 Igor Oleynikov

 Lemikkiapina, Winter Rabbit

Anna Wadham

 Seiho Takeuchi, thanks to a lovely bunny post on Japonisme

Girolamo Ciulla, Coniglio con Spighe

How Tiger lost his Kingdom

Christian Roux is a French artist whose avant-garde illustrations and comic strips

 appeared on various magazines during the 1980s-90s under the pseudonym Cathy Millet. 

In recent years he has published some beautiful children's books with Seuil Jeunesse,

 including a striking version of Little Red Riding Hood. His style is still

in continuous evolution, and I very much enjoy the limited color palette 

and spontaneous, intricate line work of his recent pen drawings.

Le Lapin et le Tigre, published in 2009, is a Chinese tale retold by Bernard Chèze.

The large format volume is part of the innovative series "Petits contes du tapis",

designed to be read aloud to small children. The six illustrated spreads are textless, 

while the written story is presented on a separate page for the adult reader.

The tale teaches that sometimes it's better to be small and clever rather than big and powerful.

Shorka the tiger, cruel king of the forest, is tired of hunting, and requires that every day

at lunchtime an animal comes to him to be eaten. But luckily rabbit has an idea 

to save himself and his friends...

Christian Roux is now represented by the agency Illustrissimo, a powerhouse 

of French illustration which collaborates with many of my favorite artists including

 Chamo, Blexbolex, Gwénola Carrère, Delphine Durand and Delphine Lebourgeois.

Tiger on the Sunflower!

Yes, they just don't wan't to go away quite yet!

Thanks again to Niffiwan for uploading this sweet 

animation directed by Leonid Nosyrev in 1981.

The story takes place in the region of the Ussuri river, 

by the Chinese border, where Amur tigers still survive.