Tuesday Flickr Set: Alice and Martin Provensen
Hillerns has his head down writing proposals, so I'm gonna step in here and direct you to this set of work by the husband-and-wife illustrator team Alice and Martin Provensen, who may be my favorite children's book illustrators. They worked together seamlessly for 45 years before Martin's death in 1987. Alice is still alive and working. I was introduced to their work at the age of six when my friend Todd Achilles' mom recommended their book Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm, a humorous look at the various denizens of a gentleman's farm, executed in a loose contour style similar to English illustrator John Burningham.
I'm a parent myself now, and once of my daughter's favorite books is their Caldecott-winning setting of Nancy Willard's collection of poems A Visit to William Blake's Inn, which is characteristic of their later work (not shown in Mr. Peng's Flickr set, sadly, but I'll look for some): rich, detailed, superflat compositions, with a particular sensitivity to architecture and lettering.
The Provensens never underestimated the intelligence of their readers: knowing that children return to books again and again, their pages are packed with details and observation. They were also unafraid of ambiguity. Their book Shaker Lane examines a community of squatters living on disused farmland in New England who are displaced by the construction of a reservoir. It's a simple, humane story with no hero, no villain, and no simple moral. Remarkably sophisticated; and refreshing, considered in the context of Dora the Explorer, Little Einsteins and the like, where every scrap of dialogue carries and exclamation mark.
I must also recommend Mr. Peng's Weblog Today's Inspiration, an excellent example of how the confluence of personal industry and access to a pulpit can turn an enthusiast into a scholar. Today's Inspiration should be the first stop for anyone interested in the history of illustration, particularly that of the postwar United States.