in 1976 WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated a collection of short stories around horses in a paperback edition of the german wilhelm heyne-verlag, DAS PARADIES DER ERDE ( paradise on earth ). there are dozens of very small printed illustrations in the book, done in pen and ink, ballpoint pen and pencil.
© wilhelm m.busch / heyne verlag muenchen
WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated in 1969 THE YEAR OF THE CATS ( das jahr der katzen ) written by ANNA-MARIE RADKE.
© wilhelm m.busch / johannes asmus verlag hamburg / bertelsmann
I want to share with you some of my favorite illustrations created by WILHELM M.BUSCH. the first two are rough sketches showing pretty well how he ‘sculpted’ his drawings. he made changes in different colors and with different tools in the same sketch, mixing ballpoint-pen with feltpen, watercolor and gouache. the images remind me of notes written down while reading a text, so light and effortless. the pen and ink drawing is a final illustration, full alive like a snapshot from a film.
© wilhelm m.busch
WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated in 1950 the novel DIE ZAUBERGEIGE – THE MAGIC VIOLIN, written by KURT KLUGE and published by deutsche buchgemeinschaft. below compilations of most of the beautiful pen and ink illustrations.
© wilhelm m.busch, deutsche buchgemeinschaft
some more illustrations created by WILHELM M.BUSCH from a limited edition work catalogue published in 1983 by edition curt visel, memmingen, germany
© wilhelm m.busch / curt visel verlag
the selected illustrations created by WILHELM M.BUSCH are from a limited edition work catalogue published in 1983 by edition curt visel, memmingen, germany.
© wilhelm m.busch / curt visel verlag
now the continued illustrations WILHELM M.BUSCH created for ZOLA’S – LES ROUGON MACQUART…
© wilhelm m.busch / winkler verlag / bertelsmann verlag
EMILE ZOLA, 1840 – 1902, wrote in the later part of the nineteenth century a set of twenty novels – LES ROUGON MACQUART. the series tells the story of two branches of a family during the second wave of the industrial revolution in france, with all the excesses of that time, violence, alcohol and prostitution. zola published LA FAUTE DE L’ABBEE MOURET ( the sin of father mouret ) as part of this series in 1875. the here shown illustrations, WILHELM M.BUSCH created, are taken from the german publication of winkler verlag, munich from 1975. BUSCH did these stunning masterpieces with a black ballpointpen. I don’t want to reduce the incredible drawings in size too much. that’s why there will be some more posts with the complete illustrations of the book.
© wilhelm m.busch / winkler verlag / bertelsmann verlag
KURT TUCHOLSKY, 1890 – 1935, wrote the multi-layered allegorical lovestory GRIPSHOLM CASTLE ( schloss gripsholm ) in 1931, predicting the rise of national socialism in germany. the ERNST ROWOHLT VERLAG published a new edition of the novel in 1964, illustrated by WILHELM M.BUSCH. different from most of his illustration work BUSCH created here caricatures, effortless written down in pen and ink.
© wilhelm m.busch / rowohlt verlag hamburg
ANNA MARIA RADKE wrote a collection of short stories THE YEAR OF THE CAT in 1969, WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated them. the technique is pencil with watered black ink, the color illustrations were done in thin gouache.
© wilhelm m.busch / johannes asmus verlag hamburg
the following pen+ink illustrations were created by WILHELM M.BUSCH in 1969 for the novel THE KING OF THE CASTLES ( DER SCHLOSSHERR ) written by VICTORIA HOLT.
© wilhelm m.busch / wolfgang krueger verlag stuttgart
WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated JIM DODGE’S novel – FUP -, written 1983, in the following year, 1984, for the berlin ULLSTEIN verlag. the story is about a duck, named FUP, who lives on a farm with an old man who believes he is immortal due to the homemade whiskey ( he got the recipe from a dying indian ) he drinks. busch created very sketchy beautiful composed pen+ink drawings, giving you the feeling of the old man’s small world seen through a wideangle lens.
© wilhelm m.busch / ullstein verlag
1980 WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated GUSTAV HILLARD’S novel DER SMARAGD. with these ‘jewels’ I wish all my chinese friends a happy NEW YEAR of the dragon, kung hei fat choi!
© wilhelm m.busch / h.christians verlag hamburg
some more selected artwork created by WILHELM M.BUSCH over a span of about forty years, that shows his incredible versatility in all different techniques – watercolor and etching, simple ballpointpen, pencil and rendered pen+ink. and they look so effortless done, just written down…
© wilhelm m.busch
another selection of mostly older artwork created by WILHELM M.BUSCH
© wilhelm m.busch
WILHELM M.BUSCH created the illustrations below between 1961 and 1967. I selected some of my favorite drawings from an exhibition catalogue to show you a bit more detail in a much higher resolution. the technique he used was pencil, pen and ink and ballpointpen.
© wilhelm m.busch
the well known american writer HENRY MILLER wrote the touching short novel THE SMILE AT THE FOOT OF THE LADDER in 1948. miller was originally inspired by a series of circus- and clown-drawings by the cubist painter FERNAND LEGER. in 1961 WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated the german edition DAS LAECHELN AM FUSSE DER LEITER published by rowohlt verlag. I think these drawings are some of the best BUSCH created, maybe because he loved the circus so much and spent a lot of time there sketching the clowns and other circus scenes. below a selection
© wilhelm m.busch / rowohlt verlag
HERMANN LOENS, 1866 – 1914, is well known in germany for his novels and poems about the people and nature of northern germany. in the mid sixties WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated a collection of his nature and hunting novels AUF HEIMLICHER PIRSCH. below a selection of the beautiful pen and ink illustrations.
© wilhelm m.busch
below is a selection of illustrations WILHELM M.BUSCH created in 1941 for the LEO NIKOLAYEVICH TOLSTOY novel – DER SILBERNE FUERST (knjaz sserebrjanyi).
© wilhelm m.busch / c.dressler verlag, berlin
the following reproductions were taken from KUENSTLER-MONOGRAPHIEN VOL.1 WILHELM M.BUSCH, 1983, edition curt visel. busch is in the photo during his class at the hochschule fuer gestaltung hamburg, the pencil illustrations were done for a german magazine in 1952. the last two ballpoint-pen drawings for GOETHE’S – DAS TAGEBUCH ( the diary ) 1969 – show how busch worked, a rough red and blue-line sketch with a cleaner black-line on top.
© wilhelm m.busch
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