Author & Artist. #1 New York Times bestselling co-creator of THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES. The Emmy-winning WONDLA now streaming on AppleTV+.
Tony DiTerlizzi
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🎉Happy birthday to the sensational Swedish illustrator, John Bauer, who was born on this day in 1882.🧵
🎉Happy Belated Birthday to Maurice Sendak, born June 10th, 1928! 🧵
Bauer's captivating watercolor imagery of elves, gnomes and trolls have inspired generations of artists such as Brian Froud, Charles Vess and, of course, me...as seen in the design for the "Woodland Elf" in Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide.
📸Photo of Bauer in his studio restored by Yours Truly and was taken around 1917. Behind him are two of his paintings, "The Dancing Nymphs" from 1915 and an early painting of his wife, Ester, as "The Fairy Princess" from 1904.🎨
To me, Maurice's picture books remain the high bar in children's literature. He understood that childhood is not all sweetness and light. His ability to capture fear, lonliness, anger and longing in simple prose is pure genius--especially when paired with his animated, deftly-rendered drawings.
I think of Maurice often. The stories he left us continue to remind me to dig deeper and tell the emotional truth. As he said in 2009, "I think what I’ve offered is different, but not because I drew better than anybody or wrote better than anybody. It was because I was more honest than anybody.”🎨
Bauer's sylvan settings, earthy palette and endearing characters have enthralled me since I first opened an old tattered copy of "Among Gnomes and Trolls" in a used bookshop. I hope they weave their enchanting spell over you as well.
I first met him at the opening of @carlemuseum.bsky.social. Years later, he and I exchanged emails about an article I’d written on the lost edition of "The Hobbit" he was meant to illustrate in the 1960s.
If you follow me, you know I love celebrating the birthdays of artists who inspired me to become an illustrator. Most of these heroes I’ve only known through their work, their stories, and the legacy they left behind. Maurice was different. He was a legend I was fortunate enough to meet.
His illustrations of dwarves and trolls directly inspired my designs in Spiderwick and Holly and I named a troll after him in "Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You".
