The Development of Children's Book Illustration in Postrevolutionary Russia

Abstract

From the author's book coectionm, 1925. the author's b ok collection. This article was born out of the desire to comprehend the development of the Leningrad School of children's book illustration in the decade following the Russian Revolution. Rather than attempting to encompass all the available material on this subject, this article focuses on the works of the four Leningrad artists, V. Lebedev, V. Ermolaeva, N. Lapshin, and N. Tjersa, who began to create art specifically for children in postrevolutionary Russia. Their works are viewed as typical examples of that historical period. The Children's Department of the State Publishing House was founded in Leningrad in 1925. Its purpose was to create literature and art for children. This department was headed by both the poet S. Marshak and the painter Lebedev. They and their collaborators developed the method of children's book illustration. Some of Marshak's books with Lebedev's illustrations, published in the mid 1920s, are recognized as classics of art for children. Lebedev's illustrations for such books as The Circus (figure 1), Today and Yesterday, The Ice-Cream (figure 2), and others have been received enthusiastically as most innovative by art historians who usually emphasize books containing representations of the new way of life. There are no such representations in The Circus, which has the m t innovative artistic structures that appropriately express the