Description

ORIGINAL ARTWORK FOR THE CHILDREN'S BOOK  Mein Kinderbuch - 1959, 52 sheets of original illustrations (235 x 164 mm, Indian ink and gouache) mounted as a leporello and an unsuccessful roofing project, Indian ink and gouache on double sheet (113 x 151 mm).

Pages 27 (full-page illustration) and 34 (continuation of the illustration on p. 35) of the book do not appear in the mock-up. The project differs from the published book in only the tiniest details (the character's hair on p. 33, the moon's gaze on p. 45).

We enclose a copy of the book: Berlin, s. d. Lucie Groszer. In-8 (166 x 238 mm), 56 pp, titled cloth spine, illustrated cover.

Karl Fischer has brought to life 38 texts by Kurt Hängekorb, a contributor to the press of Germany's Independent Social Democratic Party who has turned his hand to children's literature: humorous verses, poetic riddles for which the illustration often provides the solution, and short stories imbued as much with the return of peace (Ist der Krieg ein böses Tier?) than by the start of the space age (Sputnik I und Sputnik II).

At the end of the war, during which he was taken prisoner in the Soviet Union, Karl Fischer (1921-2018) settled in Berlin as a publisher. He became a freelance graphic artist in 1954, drawing for East German newspapers and illustrating comic strips for Der Trommel. In the 1980s, he contributed to the children's magazine Bummi and gives propaganda drawings to Frösi, published by the Youth Organisation of the German Democratic Republic. He is best known for his 4-volume edition of Grimm's fairy tales (Kinderbuchverlag, 1957) and for his illustrations for Egon und das achte Weltwunder (1962), a satirical novel for young people that was a real bestseller in the D.R.; but he also designed the layouts for around forty utopian novels and science fiction novels for the Spannend erzählt collection. Karl Fischer illustrated almost 400 books, most of them for children.