Art and illustration: John Bauer

The painter/illustrator John Bauer (1882-1918) is not well-known outside of his native country Sweden. In Sweden he is, at least to a older generation, famous and loved for his classic fairy tale illustrations. They were mainly made for the traditional Christmas edition of "Bland tomtar och troll" (Among Gnomes and Trolls ...or something like that), a fairy tale collection published since 1907. Unfortunately he died as young as 36 together with his wife and child in a shipwreck. Following Bauer's death Gustaf Tenggren took over his roll as illustrator of "Bland tomtar och troll". After Tenggren came Einar Norelius (see this earlier post) and he was succeeded by Hans Arnold (see this post).

This post about Bauer was inspired by this post by Stephen Worth of ASIFA who says that Bauer's "...style influenced generations of artists from Gustaf Tenggren ... /... Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac and Kay Nielsen to Brian Froud and Jim Henson (The Dark Crystal)." Judge for yourself:







Other sites of interest is The John Bauer Museum and Project Runeberg - Målningar av John Bauer where you can find great scans.
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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

thought i'd drop in to see where my slave is.

aah there y are naughty boy
come to daddy and I'll spank you like you wanted..

Anonymous said...

Var i somras på Jönköpings läns museum där The Bauer museum är en del av och just Bauer delen var inte den roligaste och bästa utställning jag sett.
Nu var jag väl ganska "humble" eller hur :-)

Men han Bauer var mycket duktig inte tu tal om det!!

Martin Klasch said...

hemaworstje (what the h*** does that mean by the way? And Hopsakee?): It seems I have to close my blog too, I have to many disturbed and disturbing readers bugging me!

MrJ: Jag förstår att dassologavdelningen var skojigare ;-)

Anonymous said...

p-e:
Om sanningen ska fram dom hade inte ett enda dassinslag...
Inte en enda bandyboll ...

Anonymous said...

Ser nu att du snott min reklamskylt!
Lämna tebacks!!

Anonymous said...

Do you know where the Rackham print is from?

Thanks.

Martin Klasch said...

What Rackham print is that? These are all by Bauer.

Anonymous said...

Thank you! Amazing how much it looks like a Rackham print.

Martin Klasch said...

As the post says Bauer influenced many artists... I strongly recommend that you pay ASIFA a visit: Illustration: John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll. You'll find lots of Rackham there too.