Sunday Safari - Lots of Goats

Józef Wilkon

Nikolai Tyrsa, illustration from Kozlic (Little Goat), 1923

  Yevgeny Charushin, This is how they are

 Felix Hoffmann, The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, 1957, via Curio Books

John Burningham, thanks to Children's Illustrations

Eileen Mayo, illustration from Animals on the farm

thanks to The Alphabet of Illustrators

Bruno Gambone

Charles Keeping, illustration from The nanny goat and the fierce dog, 1973

thanks to bookvart

 Lisa Congdon, Mountain Goat

Louis le Brocquy, Garlanded Goat tapestry, 1949-50

Dominique Pouchain

Solomea Loboda, linocut from Ukrainian folk Rhymes, thanks to polny shkaf

Suzy Sharpe, British Alpine Goat

Simone Rea

Children of the Revolution, part 1

Those of you who have been following Animalarium for a while are aware of my special interest in children's book illustrators of the early Soviet era. In fact, that's part of a larger fascination with Russian art and design of the 1910-30s, including advertising and propaganda, movie posters (I absolutely love the Stenberg brothers), applied arts, etc. Lately I have been collecting favorite pictures of book covers from books and websites, and now it's time to share some. I am trying to keep them in chronological order since it's interesting to see how they tend to change in time. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Kuz’ma Petrov-Vodkin for Koza-dereza (The roguish goat), traditional Ukrainian tale, 1923

Borys Kriukov for Koza-dereza, 1920s

Sergej Cechonin for Gosti (The guests) by E. Polonskaja, 1924

Aleksej Radakov for Strasnyj son (A terrible dream), 1925

Vladimir Lebedev for Azbuka (ABC-book) by Samuil Marshak, 1925

K. Kuznetsov for Teterev-kosach, 1926

Nikolaj Tyrsa for Voennye koni (War horses), 1927

Vladimir Lebedev for Cirk (The circus) by Samuil Marshak, 1928

Lidiia Popova for Kon'ogon' (The fiery horse) by Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1928

Eduard Krimmer for Mena (The exchange) by Rudyard Kipling, 1929

Borys Kriukov for Numo, khto kinets' znajde? by Sofiia Fedorchenko, 1929

Vladimir Konasevic for Pozar (The fire) by Samuil Marshak, 1929

Ivan Efimov for Mena (The exchange), 1929

Lev Judin for Kto? (Who?) by A. Vvedenskij, 1930

Borys Kriukov for Pro svynku-shchetynku, chornesen'ku spynku by A. Kovalens'kyj, 1930

Many thanks to the online archives of the Museum of Rare Books at the National Library of Ukraine for Children, the Soviet Children's Picture Books Collection at the International Institute of Social History, and the virtual exhibition Children's Books of the Early Soviet Era at the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of McGill University Libraries.

Nikolai Tyrsa's life in motion

After Charushin and Lebedev, Animalarium presents another fine Russian children's book illustrator from the twenties. 

Nikolai Tyrsa (1887-1942) was a painter, graphic designer and lithographer whose artworks were characterized by dynamism

 and simple harmonies of color. He was also a brilliant intellectual, art expert, translator and polemicist.

Tyrsa explored many areas of book illustration and design, and created a new striking and decorative book cover style.

Sadly, he died during World War II.

Cover and illustration from Kozlik (The little goat), 1923

Cover and illustrations for Pro slona (About an elephant), 1926

Illustrations from Snezhnaya kniga (The snow book), 1928

Covers for Cort (The devil), Lesnye domishki (?), Otryad (The troop), 1929-30

Tyrsa's love of horses was related to his Cossak origins. He was the only artist able 

to discuss on the same level with Lebedev the minutest details of equine illustration.

Gratitude for the info to the Italian edition of Erast Davidovic Kuznecov's 

Children's book illustration and the Russian avant-garde.