Illustration: Einar Norelius and John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1944/49)

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books.



Today we scanned more illustrations from the Swedish Christmas annual, Bland Tomtar Och Troll. (For links to posts with more from this series, see the end of this article.) The Bauer illustrations are reprinted from the 1919 and 1909 editions in the series. The Norelius images show how his style evolved over the years. By 1949, he had perfected a direct, dreamlike style (some of the images look similar to Magritte) which perfectly suits the timelessness of the fairy tale subjects. Here are more examples of the genius ofJohn Bauer and Einar Norelius- the 1944 and 1949 editions of Bland Tomtar Och Troll...

JOHN BAUER








EINAR NORELIUS












See also... Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1934). Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1929, John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1917), and Gustaf Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Illustration: Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1934)

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books.



I didn't intend to do another posting on this subject so soon, but today's post is taking a bit longer than I expected. (For Ren & Stimpy fans, it will be worth the wait!) Check back again on Thursday.

Recently, we featured illustrations from the Swedish Christmas annual, Bland Tomtar Och Troll. (Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1929) and John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1917) The artists on this series were John Bauer, Gustaf Tenggren, and Einar Norelius.

Here are more examples of the genius of Einar Norelius- the 1934 edition of Bland Tomtar Och Troll...















Is it just me, or do some of these characters seem to be perfectly designed for use as stop motion puppets? If you have any information on Einar Norelius, please let us know about it in the comments below.

See also... Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1929, John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1917), and Gustaf Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Illustration: Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1929)

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books.



A few weeks ago, we featured the work of John Bauer from the Swedish Christmas annual, Bland Tomtar Och Troll. After Bauer's premature death in a shipwreck, Gustaf Tenggren took over the series. A few years later, Tenggren relocated to America and the job was passed on to Einar Norelius.

I first heard of Norelius on P-E Fronning's blog, Martin Klasch. After seeing the beautiful illustrations from Jim, Jock and Jumbo that Fronning posted to his Flickr page, I went searching for books Norelius had illustrated. I found a batch of various vintages of Bland Tomtar Och Troll with an online bookseller in Sweden and had them shipped to me sight unseen. I wasn't disappointed. Here is the first of several posts on the work of Einar Norelius, this time featuring illustrations from the 1929 edition of Bland Tomtar Och Troll...















If you have any information on Einar Norelius, please let us know about it in the comments below.

See also... Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1934), John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1917), Gustaf Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, Arthur Rackham's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, and Kay Nielsen's East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Hansel & Gretel.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

Stumble It!

Illustration: John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books.


Like many of the artists we feature here on this blog, John Bauer is a name that not many people know. His career was relatively short, but his influence was far reaching.

Born in 1882 in Sweden, Bauer studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. In 1904, he illustrated his first book, Lappland, but in 1907 he began work on a series of Christmas annuals that would make him famous. Bland Tomtar Och Troll (Among Trolls and Elves) is a Swedish tradition, beginning in 1907 and continuing to this very day. I'm afraid I don't speak Swedish, so I can't speak for the folk tales Bauer is illustrating, but the illustrations are stunning.

Bauer had a way with trolls... they are grotesque, yet appealing. The simple, yet elegant compositions conveyed the essence of the image clearly with a sense of humor that both children and adults could understand. His style influenced generations of artists from Gustaf Tenggren (who took over the Bland Tomtar Och Troll series after Bauer's death in a shipwreck in 1918), Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac and Kay Nielsen to Brian Froud and Jim Henson (The Dark Crystal). This particular edition of Bland Tomtar Och Troll is from 1915, but the images are timeless.













MORE BY JOHN BAUER







Very little information on Bauer exists outside of his native country of Sweden. There is a museum dedicated to his work in the city where he was born. If you have any information on this great artist, please let us know about it in the comments below.

See also.. Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1929, Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1934)

To see Bauer's influence on contemporary illustrators, see... Gustaf Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales, Arthur Rackham's Grimm's Fairy Tales, and Kay Nielsen's East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Hansel & Gretel.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

10.20.08
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