John Bauer

The Golden Age: John Bauer
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The Giant

by John Bauer

The Golden Age: John Bauer 1882-1918
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Before Coca-Cola Santa there was...

Julbocken by John Bauer, 1912 

Before Coca-Cola Santa there was the Yule Goat. 
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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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