wilhelm m.busch 44

I realized how many more books illustrated by WILHELM M.BUSCH I have, and decided to prepare some more chapters about this ‘illustration giant’. his artwork below is from the book ‘LIEBE IN FRANKREICH’ ( love in france ). look how effortless these sketches were ‘written down’…

© wilhelm m.busch

illustration archives 2

todays collection is about german illustrator WILHELM M.BUSCH, 1908 – 1987. in the past I published already 43 posts about his extraordinary work, that’s why I thought an overview over his life work might be interesting, where you can see changes in style and drawing techniques. the images in this chapter are from 2 major work-catalogues.

wilhelm m.busch 43

these pen&ink illustrations were created by WILHELM M.BUSCH for charles dickens’ CHRISTMAS CAROL.

© wilhelm m.busch

wilhelm m.busch 42

WILHELM M.BUSCH created these monumental illustrations for the EMILE ZOLA 1892 novel la débâcle ( the collapse ). I selected only a few of the 60 masterpieces in this book, every single one done in a small size with a simple ballpoint pen. they could be snapshots from a david lean war drama.

© wilhelm m.busch and bertelsmann verlag

wilhelm m.busch 41

WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated this novel written by heinrich seidel – LEBERECHT HUEHNCHEN – in 1962. it’s the life story of leberecht huehnchen in the early part of the last century in berlin, germany. to me it looks like the illustrations were done with a ballpoint pen, some in pen and ink. publishing house is bertelsmann verlag.

© wilhelm m.busch / bertelsmann verlag

wilhelm m.busch 40

© wilhelm m.busch

wilhelm m.busch 39

© wilhelm m.busch

wilhelm m.busch 38

some more master-illustrations from WILHELM M.BUSCH, this time some of his color work. there will be a lot more, have to sort out the archives…

© wilhelm m.busch

wilhelm m.busch 37

© wilhelm m.busch

wilhelm m.busch 36

the illustrations below are from the 1955 published novel TANZPAUSE (dance break), written by VICKY BAUM and illustrated by WILHELM M.BUSCH. I am posting all 12 illustrations in a bigger size, so you can see the incredible quality of BUSCH’s artworks, all done in pencil. he creates such an atmosphere in these simple line drawings, captures moments in a way a photograph could never do. BUSCH never used any photographic reference, but he usually studied and sketched situations of his daily life, especially in the circus or during his lectures at the art academy. when you take a closer look, you can see the rough basic composition lines. the final drawing looks so effortless written down. whenever I look at his work I am speechless and in awe.

© wilhelm m.busch / bertelsmann verlag

wilhelm m.busch 34

JOHANNA SPYRI, 1827 – 1901, was a swiss author of children stories. probably her best known book is HEIDI, what some of you might remember as a japanese ANIME series – HEIDI, GIRL OF THE ALPS, produced in 1974. the series was directed by ISAO TAKAHATA and – HAYAO MIYAZAKI did the scene design and the layout!
WILHELM M.BUSCH illustrated in 1948 a collection of 6 stories by johanna spyri- AUF BERGESHOEHEN -, HEIDI AUF DER ALP was one of them. the illustrations are all drawn in pen and ink, but you can still see the influence of the woodcut technique, wilhelm busch concentrated on for a while during his studies.

© wilhelm m.busch / buchdienstverlag w.schmidt

wilhelm m.busch 34

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 33

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

merry christmas

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

magic violin

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

wilhelm m.busch 32

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

wilhelm m.busch 31

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

wilhelm m.busch 30.2

now the continued illustrations WILHELM M.BUSCH created for ZOLA’S – LES ROUGON MACQUART…

© wilhelm m.busch / winkler verlag / bertelsmann verlag

wilhelm m.busch 30.1

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

gripsholm castle

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