Swiss books and their illustrations
During its history, the illustration of children’s books has made its own both existing and emerging techniques: wood engraving, copper engraving, lithography, chromolithography, steel engraving, wood cut, photography, collages, computer generated images, etc. If certain of these methods came about relatively quickly – lithography, invented in 1796 in Germany, has been used in our country since the 1820s for illustrating children’s books – others, on the other hand, need time to reach that stage. That is why in Switzerland, photography, which apart from a few exceptions, had to wait until the 1930s. Notably, it was in 1933 that the Sauerländer publishing house in Aarau brought out Rechts, Links, Rechts: Die unsichtbare Hand durch den Verkehr und seine Tücken, by Fritz Aebli and Heinrich Pfenninger.
What happened to the influence of different artistic talents on the illustration of children’s books in Switzerland? It is undoubtedly important. In our country, does Art nouveau not find a prestigious representative in Ernst Kreidolf? Does the “Peinture paysanne”, so characteristic of certain cantons not find an ambassador in Johann Baptist Zeller? The examples are endless.
As for the content carried by the illustrations of numerous children’s books, it was often linked to the political, social, economic, scientific or technical contexts, etc., that the artists found themselves in.
It follows then that the nature of the images in children’s books, the place they occupy, the role they play and the type of message they convey should evolve over time.
The history of illustration in Swiss children’s books at the beginning of the 19th century is marked by the work, surprising from many points, of François Aimé Louis Dumoulin of Vevey, little known outside of the close circles of historians of children’s books and bibliophiles. If Rodolphe Töpffer is often considered, rightly, as the precursor of the cartoon strip, the little known Collection de cent-cinquante gravures représentant et formant une suite non interrompue des voyages et aventures surprenantes de Robinson Crusoé of the Vaudois constitues, without a doubt, an antecedent of the emergence of the 9th art.
Towards the 1820s and 1830s, children’s works, although generally drab externally, put on a fine livery of gold and colours. Lithography became widespread; chromolithography followed from the 1840s. In the bookshops catalogues from this period, the children’s works proliferate. The publishing house Jullien of Geneva offers, for example, at its opening in 1839, several titles for the young public. And then Histoire d’une petite souris et d’un vieux monsieur, was published around 1870 and illustrated by the Genevan Francis Chomel. He used a variation of lithography, autography, mainly used by Rodolphe Töpffer a few years earlier. The application of (water)colour was done by hand.
If the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th were marked by the work of Ernst Kreidolf, other artists also played an important role. Notably, Herbert Rikli.
In the 1940s, artists like Ernst Huber and Cili Ringgenberg seized the theme of transport. The images are often realistic. This was the Switzerland of post buses, alpine roads, the trains which are emblematic of our country such as the “Red arrow” and the “Crocodile” engine, funiculars and the well-known paddle boats, steaming towards Luzern or Montreux. These artists show a picture-postcard Switzerland, somewhat idyllic. Idyllic is also the vision of Appenzell which Johann Baptist Zeller portrays, one of the worthiest representatives of a genre used in certain cantons, “peinture paysanne”. This artist illustrated an album in which the iconography is directly inspired by the traditional Appenzell life, certainly the hard work of farming animals, but also tranquillity.
The end of the 1940s and the following decade are notably marked by a remarkable increase in the appearance of picture books, particularly in the German-speaking part of the country. For example, we see the appearance of the three very popular heros Papa Moll on one hand, from Edith Jonas Oppenheim, and Ringi and Zofi, from the imagination of the illustrator Hugo Laubi, on the other hand. Papa Moll was, after three months, ridiculed by the publication Junior; le journal d’enfants des détaillants. As for Ringi, the master, and Zofi, the dog, true representatives of the publishing house Ringier de Zofingue, they live on through many comical adventures.
Recent decades have been marked by the obvious work of Etienne Delessert. But his activities are not limited to illustration. As an editor, in fact, Etienne Delessert motivated creative work and enabled young artists to flourish. So the next instalment remains to be seen in our country. Switzerland today can boast a number of talented illustrators, such as Albertine, whose celebrated cow, Marta, has become a genuine ambassador for Swiss illustration.
The complete version of this text is available on the French version of this website.