Carl Offterdinger and his vintage illustrations

When we are talking about vintage German illustrators, fairy tales by Brothers Grimm came first to one's mind and Offterdinger was no exception. The presented illustration is from a bit less known story about the race between the hare and the hedgehog. A complete story with illustrations made by another master from approximately the same is available here:

https://childrensandhouseholdtales.wordpress.com/2019/05/04/hare-and-hedgehog/

We can describe Carl Offterdinger's style as of late romantic. While he definitely made significant changes in his technique, his compositions stayed idyllic right to the end and artistic directions which appeared in his lifetime made hardly any impact on him. Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts, for instance, movements, where Walter Crane accomplished so much, seemed to completely bypass Offterdinger. Same is true for Pre-Raphaelites.

You probably recognized the illustration from Puss in Boots, from the same book as both illustrations above. This fairy tale was written by Charles Perrault in is still best known in his version. The problematic morals of the fairy tale about the Master Cat inspired numerous artists to rewrite the story. One example (completely illustrated by Offterdinger) can be found here:

https://goodstuffonly.joomla.com/8-picture-book/5-the-new-puss-in-boots-by-edgar-behne

As you can read in the article, the artist completely failed to improve the Perrault's work but we can still enjoy in Offterdinger's superbly executed pictures.

Offterdinger's work by no means stayed limited to European literary works. The illustration above belongs to Aladdin and His Magic Lamp from 1001 Nights. It's another fine example of his superb perception of composition and colors, both perfectly synchronized with the advanced yet still pretty imperfect process of chromolithography.

This specific illustration was published by Jouvet, Paris, in 1884.

The story of Nutcracker is one of classic works which mark the Christmas time just like Dicken's Christmas Carol or Home Alone film series. Originally it's written by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, a writer and a composer who inspired hundreds of artists all over the world. His novel about the Nutcracker and Mouse King, as you probably know, is today best known in the form of ballet by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Warm colors and soft curvier lines became a kind of standard in the field of children illustration. Book publishers became aware of specific needs in the market of picture books and simple transformation of the painting as a graphic display of the scene in the story was simply not good enough. The profession of the illustrator started to form as a separate profession. Simultaneously with that illustrators became more valued and Offterdinger was among the finest of all.

He managed to make even the character of creepy Piper of Hamelin more kid-friendly. His aquarelle paintings were painstakingly transformed on a series of plates which were then combined into a final print which became as similar to the original (many of them are now hanged in the top museums in the world, is any comes in auction easily achieves the price of several thousand US dollars) as possible.

An illustration from another classic - Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is one of the oldest Offterdinger's works for book publishers, printed at the beginning of the second half of 19th century. It reveals many disadvantages of then still a new chromolithographic process. Lines are vague, colors blurred, many details, so typical for old masters of illustration, simply lost. We can still feel Offterdinger's recognizable style.

This illustration was done a few decades later and, what is more important, printed with heavily improved printing technique where the brush of Offterdinger managed to spark the life in literary characters, helping them to come to life in the reader's imagination. This example is from one of the later editions, published after Offterdinger's death.

Like several other books, including the ones already presented, it was done in collaboration with other artists, in this case with Walter Zweigle. All illustrations from the original book are available on the next link:

https://ameblo.jp/vintageart/entry-12459655143.html

Leatherstocking Tales is a title of the series written by James Fenimore Cooper, best known by The Last of the Mohicans. Work of this American Writer, who was a Romantic, just like Grimms and Offterdinger, was introduced to German readers with great success. Vivid illustrations like this one were an important part of this.

Our journey around the world with Offterdinger's illustrations is finished by another great name from German literary heritage. Wilhelm Hauff was a great fairy tale writer, very productive in other literary areas as well, yet unfortunately already dead before his 25th birthday. His complete works were illustrated by Carl Offterdinger with the presented picture from historical novel Liechtenstein. The novel was so influential, it inspired a rebuilding of the old Lichtenstein Castle and a composition of the opera by Peter Josef von Lindpaintner.