Carl Offterdinger is one of the most famous German illustrators of all times. As all illustrators from the 19th century, he started as a painter, studying at the classical art academy, exploring different media and styles, had a chance to experiment to see how his work pans out after replication with numerous new printing techniques, and finally became a professor.
This, of course, secured his financial position and gave him even more options to explore. Today we know him mostly by illustrations of fairy tales and adventure stories which are still reprinted in new versions of old collections.
Here are 10 characteristic illustrations by Carl Offterdinger:
Comments
Thanks, DerdriuMarriner, it's always a pleasure to see you stopping by. I think Offterdinger's work on Grimm's fairy tales is my favorite, but it's hard to choose just one single picture.
Tolovaj, Thank you for the images, information and products.
Which one is your favorite of the nine illustrations?
Offterdinger is particularly adept at conveying action, character and mood with an economy of implied emotions, poses and thoughts. His animals, vegetation and yellows especially seem impressive, across all artistic times and for his time's technology.
You are right, Mira, some of the presented illustrations may not show him in his best light, sometimes thanks to the age of originals and poor scans, sometimes because of the existing printing process where many factory contributed to the final result. Thanks for stopping by!
I like the energy of his characters, as you put it, but I'm having trouble enjoying his palette, which was of course limited by the available reproduction techniques. Probably also by fashion. If you look at the Till Eulenspiegel illustration, the coat of the man is bright orange. I wish he used more of those bright colors (he does it in The Pied Piper of Hamelin!), but instead his general tone is subdued.