Artists - illustrators of children's books. The best illustrators of the fairy tale “The Nutcracker”

Children's book illustrators. Who are the authors of the most favorite pictures?

What's the use of a book, thought Alice.
– if there are no pictures or conversations in it?
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Surprisingly, children's illustrations in Russia (USSR)
There is an exact year of birth - 1925. This year
a children's literature department was created in Leningradsky
State Publishing House (GIZ). Before this book
with illustrations were not published specifically for children.

Who are they - the authors of the most beloved, beautiful illustrations that have remained in our memory since childhood and are liked by our children?
Find out, remember, share your opinion.
The article was written using stories from parents of current children and reviews of books on online bookstore websites.

Vladimir Grigorievich Suteev(1903-1993, Moscow) - children's writer, illustrator and animator. His kind funny pictures look like scenes from a cartoon. Suteev’s drawings turned many fairy tales into masterpieces.
For example, not all parents consider the works of Korney Chukovsky to be necessary classics, and most of them does not consider his works talented. But I want to hold Chukovsky’s fairy tales, illustrated by Vladimir Suteev, in my hands and read them to children.

Boris Aleksandrovich Dekhterev(1908-1993, Kaluga, Moscow) – folk artist, soviet schedule(it is believed that the “Dekhterev School” determined the development of book graphics in the country), illustrator. Worked primarily in technology pencil drawing and watercolors. Old good illustrations Dekhterev is a whole era in the history of children's illustration; many illustrators call Boris Alexandrovich their teacher.

Dekhterev illustrated children's fairy tales by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, Vasily Zhukovsky, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen. As well as works of other Russian writers and world classics, for example, Mikhail Lermontov, Ivan Turgenev, William Shakespeare.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Ustinov(b. 1937, Moscow), his teacher was Dekhterev, and many contemporary artists-illustrators already consider Ustinov their teacher.

Nikolai Ustinov is a national artist and illustrator. Fairy tales with his illustrations were published not only in Russia (USSR), but also in Japan, Germany, Korea and other countries. Illustrated almost three hundred works famous artist for publishing houses: “Children’s Literature”, “Malysh”, “Artist of the RSFSR”, publishing houses of Tula, Voronezh, St. Petersburg and others. Worked in the magazine Murzilka.
Ustinov’s illustrations to Russians remain the most beloved for children. folk tales: Three Bears, Masha and the Bear, Little Fox Sister, Frog Princess, Geese Swans and many others.

Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov(1900-1973, Vyatka, Leningrad) - people's artist and illustrator. All kids like his pictures for folk songs, nursery rhymes and jokes (Ladushki, Rainbow-arc). He illustrated folk tales, tales of Leo Tolstoy, Pyotr Ershov, Samuil Marshak, Vitaly Bianki and other classics of Russian literature.

When buying children's books with illustrations by Yuri Vasnetsov, make sure that the pictures are clear and moderately bright. Using the name famous artist, V lately books are often published with unclear scans of drawings or with increased unnatural brightness and contrast, and this is not very good for children's eyes.

Leonid Viktorovich Vladimirsky(b. 1920, Moscow) - Russian graphic artist and the most popular illustrator of books about Buratino by A. N. Tolstoy and about the Emerald City by A. M. Volkov, thanks to which he became widely known in Russia and other countries former USSR. Painted with watercolors. It is Vladimirsky’s illustrations that many recognize as classic among Volkov’s works. Well, Pinocchio in the form in which several generations of children have known and loved him is undoubtedly his merit.

Victor Alexandrovich Chizhikov(b. 1935, Moscow) - People's Artist of Russia, author of the image of the bear cub Mishka, the summer mascot Olympic Games 1980 in Moscow. Illustrator for the magazines “Crocodile”, “Funny Pictures”, “Murzilka”, drew for many years for the magazine “Around the World”.
Chizhikov illustrated the works of Sergei Mikhalkov, Nikolai Nosov (Vitya Maleev at school and at home), Irina Tokmakova (Alya, Klyaksich and the letter “A”), Alexander Volkov (The Wizard emerald city), poems by Andrei Usachev, Korney Chukovsky and Agnia Barto and other books.

To be fair, it is worth noting that Chizhikov’s illustrations are quite specific and cartoonish. Therefore, not all parents prefer to buy books with his illustrations if there is an alternative. For example, many people prefer the books “The Wizard of Oz” with illustrations Leonid Vladimirsky.

Nikolai Ernestovich Radlov(1889-1942, St. Petersburg) - Russian artist, art historian, teacher. Illustrator of children's books: Agnia Barto, Samuil Marshak, Sergei Mikhalkov, Alexander Volkov. Radlov drew with great pleasure for children. His most famous book– comics for kids “Stories in Pictures”. This is a book-album with funny stories about animals and birds. Years have passed, but the collection is still very popular. The stories in pictures were repeatedly republished not only in Russia, but also in other countries. On international competition children's book in America in 1938, the book received second prize.

Alexey Mikhailovich Laptev(1905-1965, Moscow) - graphic artist, book illustrator, poet. The artist’s works are in many regional museums, as well as in private collections in Russia and abroad. Illustrated “The Adventures of Dunno and His Friends” by Nikolai Nosov, “Fables” by Ivan Krylov, and the magazine “Funny Pictures”. The book with his poems and pictures “Peak, pak, pok” is very loved by more than one generation of children and parents (Briff, the greedy bear, the foals Chernysh and Ryzhik, fifty bunnies and others)

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin(1876-1942, Leningrad) - Russian artist, book illustrator and theater designer. Bilibin illustrated large number fairy tales, including Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. He developed his own style - “Bilibinsky” - a graphic representation taking into account the traditions of Old Russian and folk art, carefully drawn and detailed patterned contour drawing, colored with watercolors. Bilibin's style became popular and began to be imitated.

Fairy tales, epics, images ancient Rus' For many, they have long been inextricably linked with Bilibin’s illustrations.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Konashevich(1888-1963, Novocherkassk, Leningrad) - Russian artist, graphic artist, illustrator. I started illustrating children's books by accident. In 1918, his daughter was three years old. Konashevich drew pictures for her for each letter of the alphabet. One of my friends saw these drawings and liked them. This is how “The ABC in Pictures” was published - the first book by V. M. Konashevich. Since then, the artist has become an illustrator of children's books.
Since the 1930s, illustrating children's literature became the main work of his life. Konashevich also illustrated adult literature, was engaged in painting, painted pictures in his favorite specific technique - ink or watercolor on Chinese paper.

The main works of Vladimir Konashevich:
- illustration of fairy tales and songs different nations, some of which were illustrated several times;
- fairy tales by G.Kh. Andersen, Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault;
- “The Old Man of the Year” by V. I. Dahl;
- works by Korney Chukovsky and Samuil Marshak.
Last job The artist was illustrating all the fairy tales of A. S. Pushkin.

Anatoly Mikhailovich Savchenko(1924-2011, Novocherkassk, Moscow) - animator and illustrator of children's books. Anatoly Savchenko was the production designer for the cartoons “Kid and Carlson” and “Carlson is Back” and the author of illustrations for Astrid Lindgren’s books. The most famous cartoon works with his direct participation: Moidodyr, the adventures of Murzilka, Petya and Little Red Riding Hood, Vovka in Far Far Away Kingdom, The Nutcracker, The Cluttering Fly, Kesha the Parrot and others.
Children are familiar with Savchenko’s illustrations from the books: “Piggy Gets Offended” by Vladimir Orlov, “Little Brownie Kuzya” by Tatyana Alexandrova, “Fairy Tales for the Little Ones” by Gennady Tsyferov, “Little Baba Yaga” by Otfried Preussler, as well as books with works similar to cartoons.

Oleg Vladimirovich Vasiliev(b. 1931, Moscow). His works are in the collections of many art museums in Russia and the USA, incl. in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Since the 60s, for more than thirty years he has been engaged in the design of children's books in collaboration with Erik Vladimirovich Bulatov (born 1933, Sverdlovsk, Moscow).
The most famous are the artists' illustrations for the fairy tales of Charles Perrault and Hans Andersen, the poems of Valentin Berestov and the fairy tales of Gennady Tsyferov.

Boris Arkadyevich Diodorov(born 1934, Moscow) - People's Artist. Favorite technique is color etching. Author of illustrations for many works of Russian and foreign classics. His illustrations for fairy tales are most famous:

- Jan Ekholm “Tutta Karlsson the First and Only, Ludwig the Fourteenth and Others”;
- Selma Lagerlöf " Amazing trip Nilsa with wild geese»;
- Sergey Aksakov “ Scarlet flower»;
- works of Hans Christian Andersen.

Diodorov illustrated more than 300 books. His works were published in the USA, France, Spain, Finland, Japan, South Korea and other countries. He worked as the chief artist of the publishing house "Children's Literature".

Evgeniy Ivanovich Charushin(1901-1965, Vyatka, Leningrad) - graphic artist, sculptor, prose writer and children's animal writer. The illustrations are mostly done in a free style watercolor drawing, a little humorous. Children like it, even toddlers. He is known for the illustrations of animals that he drew for his own stories: “About Tomka”, “Wolf and Others”, “Nikitka and His Friends” and many others. He also illustrated other authors: Chukovsky, Prishvin, Bianchi. The most famous book with his illustrations is “Children in a Cage” by Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak.

Evgeniy Mikhailovich Rachev(1906-1997, Tomsk) – animal artist, graphic artist, illustrator. He illustrated mainly Russian folk tales, fables and tales of classics of Russian literature. He mainly illustrated works in which the main characters are animals: Russian fairy tales about animals, fables.

Ivan Maksimovich Semenov(1906-1982, Rostov-on-Don, Moscow) - people's artist, graphic artist, caricaturist. Semenov worked in the newspapers “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “ Pioneer truth", magazines "Smena", "Crocodile" and others. Back in 1956, on his initiative, the first humorous magazine in the USSR for young children, “Funny Pictures,” was created.
His most famous illustrations: for Nikolai Nosov’s stories about Kolya and Mishka (Dreamers, Living hat and others) and drawings “Bobik visiting Barbos”.

The names of some other famous contemporary Russian illustrators of children's books:

- Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Nazaruk(b. 1941, Moscow) – production designer for dozens of animated films: Little Raccoon, The Adventures of Leopold the Cat, Mother for a Baby Mammoth, Bazhov's tales and the illustrator of books of the same name.

- Nadezhda Bugoslavskaya (biographical information the author of the article did not find) - the author of kind, beautiful illustrations for many children's books: Poems and songs of Mother Goose, poems by Boris Zakhoder, works by Sergei Mikhalkov, works by Daniil Kharms, stories by Mikhail Zoshchenko, "Pippi Long stocking» Astrid Lindgren and others.

- Igor Egunov (the author of the article did not find biographical information) is a contemporary artist, author of bright, well-drawn illustrations for books: “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” by Rudolf Raspe, “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by Pyotr Ershov, fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hoffmann, tales of Russian heroes

- Evgeniy Antonenkov(born 1956, Moscow) - illustrator, favorite technique is watercolor, pen and paper, mixed media. The illustrations are modern, unusual, and stand out among others. Some look at them with indifference, others fall in love with the funny pictures at first sight.
The most famous illustrations: to the tales of Winnie the Pooh (Alan Alexander Milne), “Russian children's fairy tales”, poems and fairy tales by Samuil Marshak, Korney Chukovsky, Gianni Rodari, Yunna Moritz. “The Stupid Horse” by Vladimir Levin (English ancient folk ballads), illustrated by Antonenkov, is one of the most popular books of 2011.
Evgeny Antonenkov collaborates with publishing houses in Germany, France, Belgium, USA, Korea, Japan, regular participant prestigious international exhibitions, laureate of the competition White Crow"(Bologna, 2004), winner of the Book of the Year diploma (2008).

- Igor Yulievich Oleynikov (b. 1953, Moscow) – artist-animator, mainly works in hand-drawn animation, book illustrator. Surprisingly, such a talented contemporary artist has no special art education.
In animation, Igor Oleinikov is known for the films: “The Secret of the Third Planet”, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, “Sherlock Holmes and I” and others. Worked with children's magazines "Tram", "Sesame Street" Good night, kids! and others.
Igor Oleynikov collaborates with publishing houses in Canada, the USA, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Korea, Taiwan and Japan, and participates in prestigious international exhibitions.
The artist’s most famous illustrations for books: “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” by John Tolkien, “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” by Erich Raspe, “The Adventures of Despereaux the Mouse” by Kate DiCamillo, “Peter Pan” by James Barrie. Latest books with illustrations by Oleinikov: poems by Daniil Kharms, Joseph Brodsky, Andrei Usachev.
A m I didn’t really want to introduce you to illustrators, remember our childhood and recommend them to young parents.

(text) Anna Agrova

You might also be interested in:

E.M. Rachev. Illustrations for Russian fairy tales

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Artist Varvara Boldina

They gave us a fairy tale! Illustrators who brought our favorite heroes to life. A guide to books, style, techniques and life stories.

Ivan Bilibin

Master of graphics, creator of a special type of illustrated book, “the first professional of the book” - as experts call him. His example is a science to others; many generations of not only illustrators, but also graphic designers sought inspiration in Bilibin’s work.

“The Frog Princess”, “Vasilisa the Beautiful”, “Marya Morevna”, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel”, “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” - it’s worth finding your favorite books from childhood on the shelf to be convinced - beauty!

Style. You can recognize Bilibin’s works from a large format thin notebook book with large color drawings. And the artist here is not just the author of the drawings, but also of all decorative elements books - covers, initials, fonts and ornamental decorations.

Elena Polenova

The Abramtsevo Museum-Reserve still houses books illustrated by Elena Polenova. The sister of the famous painter Vasily Polenov, although she was associated with the bohemian “Mamontov circle” - artists, artists, architects, was always interested in the folk, peasant. She was inspired by fairy tales; in her letters to friends, heroes of folklore are mentioned, for example: Grandma Fedosya is a master of inventing funny fables.

Style: The main thing in Polenova’s landscapes is attention to “little things”: herbs, flowers, mushrooms, insects. She tried “to be transported back to that distant childhood when, listening to this story, I imagined miniature monasteries and cities in the forest, built, so to speak, on a mushroom scale, in which these amazing creatures live and act.”

Yuri Vasnetsov

“The Stolen Sun” by Korney Chukovsky, “Cat’s House” by Samuil Marshak, “The Little Humpbacked Horse” by Pyotr Ershov - we present the heroes of all these books thanks to the drawings of Yuri Vasnetsov .

Style: The artist was inspired by the elegant Dymkovo dolls and bright roosters; the traditions of lubok and folk fantasy had a noticeable influence on the illustrator’s work.

Detail: Book graphics was only part of Vasnetsov’s creativity. In his paintings, he showed himself to be a very important master, combining folk culture and high aesthetics.

Vladimir Konashevich

Vladimir Konashevich gave us the opportunity to see Doctor Aibolit, Tyanitolkay, little Bibigon, Little Humpbacked Horse and the wise men who sailed on the sea in a thunderstorm. Talking about how he comes up with drawings, Konashevich admitted: “There are artists who invent and think with a pencil in their hand... I am an artist of a different kind. Before I take up a pencil, I have to find out everything in advance, mentally imagine a ready-made drawing in all the details..."

Style: For an artist working with children's books, one talent for drawing is not enough; a second talent is needed - kindness. Konashevich’s world is just like that, a world of kindness and dreams. The artist created recognizable style in the design of fairy tales: bright images, ornate patterns, vignettes, “live” composition that captivates not only children, but also adults.

Georgy Narbut

“From an early age, as long as I can remember,” Georgy Narbut admitted, “I was attracted to painting. In the absence of paints, which I did not see until I got to the gymnasium, I used pencils colored paper: cut out with scissors and glued with flour glue."

The artist, draftsman and illustrator, organizer of higher graphic education in Ukraine, Georgy Narbut, studied with Mikhail Dobuzhinsky and Ivan Bilibin, the latter even said: “Narbut has enormous, literally immense talent... I consider him the most outstanding, the greatest of Russian graphic artists.”

Style. In Narbut’s workshop, brilliant ideas were born and masterpieces were created that changed the history of books in Russia. Book graphics are not just virtuoso technique and refined taste. Narbut's style is always an expressive cover, decoratively designed front page, initial letters and skillful illustrations.

Boris Zvorykin

The artist deliberately avoided excessive publicity, which is why the facts about her biography are so scarce. It is known that he came from the Moscow merchant class and studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

Zvorykin is considered the founder of the “Russian style” in book illustration and the best graphic-ornamentalist of the early 20th century. Since 1898, he has illustrated and designed books for the Moscow and St. Petersburg publishing houses of Ivan Sytin and Anatoly Mamontov. The artist's first experience in the field of children's books was the book "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel" by Alexander Pushkin.

Style. Boris Zvorykin looked for inspiration for his works in Russian antiquity, decorative and applied arts, icon painting, wooden architecture And book miniature. No wonder he was one of the active members of the Society for the Revival of Artistic Rus'.

Boris Diodorov

Boris Diodorov “revitalized” for us the heroes of Russian and foreign classics. “Tutta Karlsson the First and Only,” “Ludwig the Fourteenth and Others,” “The Amazing Journey of Nils with Wild Geese,” “The Thing in the Hat” (about the history of headdresses in Russia together with Irina Konchalovskaya) - you can’t list them all: in total the artist illustrated about 300 books.

Diodorov worked as the chief artist of the publishing house "Children's Literature", received from the hands of the Princess of Denmark gold medal H. H. Andersen, his works were exhibited in the USA, France, Spain, Finland, Japan, and South Korea.

Style: the beauty of fine lines. The etching technique, in which a steel needle scratches a design on a varnished metal plate, is quite complex, but only it allows one to achieve airiness and subtlety in execution.

Today I want to talk about modern children's book illustrators. When I was preparing material for this article, I noticed that modern artists create very beautiful and high-quality illustrations, but mainly for middle and older children school age. You can often see beautiful illustrations for Andersen's fairy tales, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, and Hoffmann's fairy tales.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find modern Russian artists, creating for kids. Those that could stand on a par with the names - Suteev, Charushin, Tokmakov, Miturich, Konashevich... But, let's hope that this temporary gap will soon be filled with new bright names.

And now we present to you the top 7 best modern children's illustrators of the national school.

Igor Oleynikov

This one is extraordinary talented artist known not only as an illustrator of children's books, but also as an excellent cartoonist. He took part in the creation of such wonderful cartoons as “The Secret of the Third Planet”, “Caliph the Stork”, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” and many others, which were loved by viewers of all ages.

Surprisingly, one of the brightest Russian children's artists does not have a professional art education (which he greatly regrets, according to own confession). He was born in Lyubertsy, Moscow region, and graduated from the Institute of Chemical Engineering. He started working at the Soyuzmultfilm studio as an assistant to the production designer.

Igor Oleynikov is the winner of various animated and book festivals. His illustrations are mesmerizing, enchanting so much that it is difficult to believe that he did not study at any art university.

The fairy tale “The Emperor and the Nightingale” by H.H. Andersen. Publishing house Azbuka-classics

Evgeniy Antonenkov

Graduated from the Moscow Polygraphic Institute. For a long time collaborated with the Rosmen publishing house. He illustrated many books, including books by Yunna Moritz, Korney Chukovsky, Boris Zakhoder, Alan Milne, Sergei Kozlov and other authors.

“Bibigon”, K. Chukovsky

“Bibigon”, K. Chukovsky

“Lemon Malinovich Compress”, Yunna Moritz

“Little Muk”, V. Gauf

Vladislav Erko

Many mothers are probably familiar with the wonderful illustrations of this artist. My dream has always been “The Snow Queen” with drawings by Vladislav Erko. The artist was born and lives in Kyiv, has long and successfully collaborated with the famous Ukrainian publishing house “A-ba-ba-ga-la-ma-ga”.

Book " Snow Queen"with illustrations by Yerko was recognized as the best children's book in the United States in 2006 and was awarded the Andersen Foundation Medal.

Evgenia Gapchinskaya

Famous children's illustrator, who has earned the recognition of many parents with her creativity. Evgeniya was born in Kharkov in 1964, and studied there. Now he lives in Kyiv and collaborates with the Kyiv publishing house “A-ba-ba-ga-la-ma-ga”.

Galina Zinko

Ukrainian artist who illustrated many children's books, including fairy tales by Pushkin, Aksakov, C. Perrault, H. H. Andersen. Galina Zinko has been successfully collaborating with the publishing house Clever for a long time, so many modern parents are familiar with her romantic and touching style.

“The Pigeon Story”, A. Borovetskaya

“Bloshkins and Frew from Barakhty Bay”, A. Nikolskaya

“Bloshkins and Frew from Barakhty Bay”, A. Nikolskaya

Anton Lomaev

Born in 1971 in the city of Vitebsk (which gave the world Chagall and Malevich). He studied at the Academy of Arts (Repin Institute) in St. Petersburg, lives and works there, and successfully collaborates with a number of Russian publishing houses. He is a member of the Union of Artists.

Anton Lomaev is known for his bright, imaginative illustrations for children's fairy tales. Among my favorites - magical illustrations to "The Little Mermaid" and other fairy tales by Andersen.

Illustrator Anton Lomaev. Fairy tale “The Little Mermaid”

Illustrations for children's books are a very broad and very interesting topic. And she needs not only admiration: book illustrations teach you to perceive beauty, educate you in your own way, influence your creativity - that is, they work. A deep interest in the topic and respect for real creativity permeate every line of this work, and the names of the artists mentioned here will open up new or forgotten horizons for us.

I have long wanted to write a review dedicated to children's books with good illustrations. I gathered my courage and asked myself: what is the best way to approach the topic? It is very rich and multifaceted, and approaches here may be different, and I am not an art critic, not a cultural historian...

And then I realized: I have something to rely on - my personal experience, on my vision of the topic, the conclusions that I made by observing and communicating with children, on my childhood memories and impressions.

Let this not be exactly a review, but rather a conversation about illustrations for children's books. Shall we talk?

Before the birth of my eldest daughter, I didn’t think about this topic at all. Personally, I didn’t buy children’s books for myself and didn’t go near the shelves in the children’s section in stores.

Imagine my surprise when the question arose about buying the baby’s first books: I was literally on the verge of discovery.

For some reason, I was sure that a children's book is a priori a sign of quality. I thought that a book for a child - both text and illustrations - is always the result a lot of work the best professionals, the fruit of responsibility to the little reader. But no, it turns out that buying a child a good book is almost a prize for hours of searching and careful selection.

I won’t talk about book design and picture books now - these are two separate big topics. My conversation will be about those books where text and illustration go hand in hand.

So, the first purchase for my daughter was a book 100 kids' favorite poems publishing house AST. Before purchasing, I looked through many collections, but when I saw photographs of the inside pages of this book, I realized: here they are - illustrations for the poems that I need: drawings by V. Chizhikov, E. Bulatov and O. Vasilyev, V. Suteev, V. Kanevsky, etc. .

I’m now reacquainted with these and other names of children’s illustrators, and then I realized the first one for myself important thing: Several decades have passed, but I know exactly what a “crooked jackdaw”, “our Masha”, “sleepy elephant” looks like. This means that my children will also remember there, deep inside, pictures from childhood, and these future memories are in my hands .

For this reason, we have home library Nowadays there are many reprints of Soviet books with beautiful illustrations that have become classics. In no way am I claiming that there are no worthy modern illustrators. Eat! But... I want my children to associate certain texts with certain pictures.

For example, I associate Russian folk tales, such as “The Turnip”, “The Wolf and the Little Goats”, “The Three Bears”, nursery rhymes, and ladushki only with drawings Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov . When I pick up the collection Two magpies were chatting or any other book with illustrations by this wizard, something freezes inside, and then begins to beat more and more strongly.

I never cease to amaze the artist’s imagination, his ability to see in five phrases complete world, which does not fit even on ten pages. When I look at Vasnetsov’s illustrations, it seems to me that through the window of the page I see only one inch of the Universe, and I urgently want to shrink down and live in a fairy tale Fox and mouse V. Bianchi forever.

Now Vasnetsov is being republished a lot. You can also find Stolen sun K. Chukovsky, and Cat's house S. Marshak, and others. There's also a great series Ladushki Azbuka publishing house. Convenient thin books of a small format allow you to read when you cannot hold the collection in your hand, or you need to take a book to read on the road or in line. And you can look at and discuss each spread of the book with such illustrations until the last meter of the journey.

My second absolute conviction-association is what the Little Humpbacked Horse, Sivka-Burka and other fairy-tale horses look like - just the way they were painted Nikolai Mikhailovich Kochergin . There are several collections of his work on YouTube.

Today you can buy a fairy tale by P. Ershov "The Little Humpbacked Horse" with illustrations by Kochergin published by Amphora or a version by NIGMA publishing house. I have never regretted that I had the “Nigma” version. Thanks to the heirs and publishers! You can even look at sketches and sketches for a fairy tale, as if taking a peek into the artist’s studio.

Overall, the book is excellent, and also heavy, so it can’t be lifted with one hand to read in a busy place. Such publications must be in the children's library so that to learn by taking a book from the shelf, to be “fascinated”, to feel and distinguish the present, to appreciate and respect the work of masters .

The publishing house NIGMA began releasing an amazing series back in 2012 "The Legacy of N. Kochergin". For example, I look at "Russian folk tales", I admire... Perhaps I will decide to buy, perhaps not. The fact is that I came across some children’s books from the Soviet era, including “Ivan the Cow’s Son” and “Ivan the Tsarevich and gray wolf“with illustrations by P. Bagin, and “Go there, I don’t know where, bring something, I don’t know what” with drawings by V. Milashevsky, “Sivka-burka” with drawings by S. Yarovoy - all are beautiful, each is a treasure.

I can’t remember these exact books from my childhood. I only remember thick collections where the largest pictures are the ornate first letters of the names of fairy tales. I read avidly, the lack of full-fledged illustrations never stopped me, in my head I drew my own drawings, and even entire fairy tale films, which would have been simply impossible without a firmly acquired set of images that filled my childhood.

Imagination feeds on memory: previously received impressions, experiences, sensations, experiences. And under artistic images there is a lot of space allocated here. Understanding this, I realize the second very important thing: The quality of the pantry that will form the basis of my children’s future creations depends on me , be it the first portrait of a mother, an original architectural solution or a new nanotechnology.

“Human thought without imagination is sterile”, - said K. Paustovsky, and then continued: “Just as imagination is fruitless without reality”. So, I read, for example, about Tatyana Alekseevna Mavrina : “For many years the artist, together with her husband Nikolai Kuzmin, traveled around ancient Russian cities, collecting icons and popular prints, drawing from life.”

Capturing the beauty of the present, Mavrina created amazingly truthful fairytale illustrations: "The Frog Princess", "Tales of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin", "On Buyan Island"(folk tales) are priceless publications. Oh, it’s not for nothing that Tatyana Mavrina, the only one of domestic artists, awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Gold Medal for her contribution to the illustration of children's books.

Only the priceless truth of reality allows us to believe and accept the most magical fairy world. But there are children's books in which this very truth has even greater value - this books about animals. It is from them that children gain knowledge about the real world and gain their first experience of communicating with nature.

By the way, For young children, photographs, even if they are the most reliable, are very difficult to perceive.

Another thing is a drawing by an artist, in which the very essence, the spirit of a living organism is captured. And here the inaccuracy, irresponsibility, and unprofessionalism of the illustrator are very dangerous: children will receive distorted ideas about the magical wonderful world in which they live.

Will they be able to play fun games Alexey Mikhailovich Laptev (from the book "Pick, Puck, Pock")?

Our first books about nature, the first encyclopedias about animals - books by Evgeny Ivanovich and Nikita Evgenievich Charushin, Natalya Nikitichna Charushina-Kapustina. Watercolor publishing house is slowly releasing a wonderful series "Charushinsky animals". Thin, small-format books reveal the widest world of nature in all its beauty and harmony.

Many people don’t even understand why illustrations are needed if the book is not intended for a child. By the way, book illustration– this is not just a thematic drawing, but an integral component of the work, which complements the text and makes it a little more accessible to the reader. Of course, modern illustrations differ most radically from classical book engravings, however, even among them one can find not only decent jobs, but real masterpieces. In addition, at one time, the creation of illustrations was carried out by great painters, for whom painting canvases with literary basis it was akin to an experiment.

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin was one of the first Russian painters who began creating illustrations for Russian folk tales and epics. The first book with his illustrations was published when to a young artist turned 25 years old. As a rule, Bilibin worked on books of small volume or so-called “notebooks.” Characteristic feature The artist had a design style according to which both text and illustrations formed a single whole. Therefore, in the books designed by Bilibin, the drawings were given exactly the same amount of space as the text. All of Bilibin’s illustrations, which had a fabulously festive character with features folk art, were created using unique technology. The artist first made a drawing with a pencil on tracing paper, transferred it to a sheet of Whatman paper and, using a thin brush, outlined the image with a black line, after which he began coloring. Among the most famous works Bilibin illustrations for the fairy tales “Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka”, “Vasilisa the Beautiful”, “Finist the Clear Falcon”, “The Frog Princess”, as well as for the works of A.S. Pushkin “Lukomorye”, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan.. .” and “The Tale of the Golden Cockerel.”

One more an outstanding artist, and also a talented illustrator was Yuri Alekseevich Vasnetsov, the creator of a whole gallery of images for children's books. Vasnetsov spent his entire childhood and youth in the city of Vyatka, which became his inspiration and prompted him to create a number of illustrations reflecting the everyday and festive life of a small provincial town. Vasnetsov’s style is very recognizable: it always contains bright colors, ornate patterns, backgrounds and images containing pink, blue, yellow and red colors. Color plays a key role in Vasnetsov’s illustrations. One more characteristic feature drawings by Yu.A. Vasnetsov is that the artist creates an amazing fairy-tale world - the world of childhood, where there is no cruelty and where good always triumphs over evil. His most famous works are illustrations for the children's books “The Fox and the Hare”, “The Three Bears”, “The Wolf and the Little Goats”, “Ruff the Kids”, “Fifty Little Pigs” and so on.

Book illustrations by Russian artists are unique in their kind, truly beautiful, bright, kind and very sincere. They are rich in color, interesting images and ease of perception. Therefore, it is not surprising that Russian people are considered the most read nation in the world.