History Of Picture Books

Early precursors of the modern day picturebook can be traced as far back as paintings on cave walls. Some examples are believed to be up to 30,000 to 60,000 years old and have been found in France and Spain. At the time it was an important means of communication for they probably couldn't talk yet and they definitely didn't have phones or twitter. One of the oldest examples of visual narrative is Trajans Column. Egyptian papyrus from 1980bc is seen as possibly the oldest surviving illustrated book.

The invention of printing in the fifteenth century meant that education in the west became more readily available to more people that just the rich. It is widely believed that printing and paper originated in China. Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in 1430 which very much opened the way for mass publishing to take place. Ulrich Boner's book 'Der Edelstein' is seen as the first example of a book with both type and image printed together. The first childrens picture book is seen to be Comenius' 'Orbis Sensualium Pictus' by the way. William Blake is seen to be the first person to create a symbiotic relationship between word and image. He produced 'Songs of innocence' in 1978 and completed the printing and publishing himself. His idiosyncratic visionary visual style was one of the most totally original ones to come out of that time, it owed little to anything that had come before it in visual arts at the tome.

Until the 1830s colour was added by hand until a process for printing colour for woodblocks was invented independantly of eachother by George Baxter and Charles Knight. A direct influence on mdoern picture books was Der Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann. The stories contained cruelty and violence and ghastly consequences for misbehaviour. They have stood the test of time and have been reinterprited through many and varying media.

The birth of the modern picture book is seen to have happened in the late nineteenth century. Randolf Caldecott is acknowledged to be the father of the modern picture book. 'A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go' and 'Come Lasses And Lads' were seen as good ones and a radical departure from the relationship between visual and verbal texts that had prevailed hitherto. His books were published as Randolph Caldecotts Picture Books and Caldecott is thought to be the first artist to negotiate a royalty payment of a penny per book rather than a flat fee.

The late nineteenth century/early twentieth century was good for childrens books, there had been a development in printing technology and a change in attitudes towards children. There were a large amount of influnecial artists emerging at that time including Arthur Rackham, William Nicholson, Edy Legrand and Edward McKnight Kauffer.

Babar The Elephant, The Story of Babar was a book by Jean de Brunhoff and was published in 1931 in France by Conde Nast. It was an inovation in childrens books as the vast amount of colour, the large format and the handwritten text hadn't been seen in this way before. There were five more Babar books before Brunhoffs untimely death at the age of 37. After world war 2, his song Laurent continued his fathers work and created many more Babar books over many decaded and on into the twenty first century.

Edward Ardizzone produced drawings for all ages and all kinds of books. His series of 'Little Tim' books hold a key place in the evolution of childrens books. Little Tim books were initially produced in 9x13in format and full colour throughout, but only on one side of the paper. Later the books became smaller and the colour illustrations were interspersed with black and white drawings. To produce the colour illustrations he drew the black ink outline on a separate, transparent overlay while the watercolour washes were painted on another sheet of paper. This was tricky but the only way to achieve a solid printed black line that matched his original, rather than the one that was made up of a combination of the other three colours of the lithograph process: magenta, cyan and yellow.

Mervyn Peake was one of the more imaginative and original artists to come from the 30s. Captain Slaughterboard Drops the Anchor was his first picture book initially published while he was still in his 20s. The book was published in '39 by Country Life shortly before world war 2. Initial responce to his work was lukewarm, no one got his world of pirates and aliens. Punch magazine declared it to be quite unsuitable for sensitive children. His stock was burned down and destroyed when the warehouse where the books were was bombed by the Luftwaffe. A rare 1939 first edition is now believed to be one of the most rare and expensive of all the childrens books ever. Captain Slaughterboard was reprinted at the end of qorld war 2 in 1945 and published by Eyre and Spottiswode with added coloured tints. Survivng copies are very saught after. Peake's creation and subtle interplay or word and image on the page makes this a key picturebook that was way ahead of its time.