Lilo Fromm (27 December 1928 – 19 June 2023) was a German artist and children's book illustrator. She illustrated more than 250 books during her life.[1] In 1967, her illustrations for the book The Golden Bird won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis.

Lilo Fromm
Born(1928-12-27)December 27, 1928
Berlin, Germany
DiedJune 19, 2023(2023-06-19) (aged 94)
Hamburg, Germany
OccupationArtist

Biography

edit

Fromm was born on 27 December 1928 in Berlin, Germany.[2] She grew up in Berlin, and while she was young, she also lived in East Prussia and on the North Sea. She was educated in Berlin, Munich, Freiburg, and Hamburg.[1]

She began her career in commercial art and advertising, including designing paper goods and book covers. She was a freelance artist in the 1950s, and turned to illustrating children's books mainly during the 1960s and 1970s.[2][3] In 1957 in Germany, her first children's book illustrations were published by Georg Lentz Verlag.[1][4] She co-published her first children's book with her friend and author, Gisela Bonsels.[2]

She illustrated the children's book Das Mondgesicht (1960), which was a runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1962.[5] In 1967, her illustrations for the book The Golden Bird won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis and the Bratislava Gold Medal.[3] She also illustrated the book Uncle Harry (1972), which won a Children's Book Showcase title in 1973.[5]

In 1965, Fromm moved to Provence, France. She lived there until she moved back to Germany in 2016.[1][6]

Fromm gave many of her illustrations to the International Youth Library, where her work is held in their collection.[7] She died on 19 June 2023 in Hamburg, Germany, at the age of 94.[1][6]

Style of artwork

edit

The majority of Fromm's children's book illustrations were made in a painterly style, which was in contrast to the graphic art style of most German picture book artists during the 1960s.[8] Her work was colorful, and she worked with crayon and painted washes.[9] Some of her work was created with black ink illustrations, such as the book Muffel and Plums.[10]

Her fairy tales illustrations had a dream-like quality that emerged in Germany in the mid-1960s alongside other artists, including Helga Aichinger and Lieselotte Schwarz.[11] Cristoph Meckel, while writing for Bookbird, said she used symbolism and archetypes in her depictions of fairy tales.[12]

Selected works

edit
  • Das Mondgesicht (1960, Obpacher Buch u. Kunstverlag) - written by Gerda Marie Scheidl
  • Uncle Harry (1972, Macmillan) - written by Gerlinde Schneider, adapted by Elizabeth Shub
  • Muffel and Plums (1973, Macmillan; 1973, Hamilton)[10]
  • Six Companions Find Their Fortune (1971, Doubleday) - written by Brothers Grimm[10]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c d e "Lilo Fromm ist tot". Börsenblatt (in German). June 22, 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Bochow, Fedor (2021). "Fromm, Lilo". Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon - Internationale Künstlerdatenbank - Online. K. G. Saur. Retrieved 17 December 2023 – via De Gruyter.
  3. ^ a b Bush, Margaret (1 January 2006). "Fromm, Lilo". The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514656-1. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  4. ^ Ward, Martha Eads; Marquardt, Dorothy A. (1975). Illustrators of Books for Young People. Scarecrow Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-8108-0819-5. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  5. ^ a b Jones, Dolores Blythe (1988). Children's literature awards and winners : a directory of prizes, authors, and illustrators. Neal-Schuman Pub. in association with Gale Research Co. p. 330. ISBN 978-0-8103-2741-2. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  6. ^ a b "Kinderbuch-Illustratorin Lilo Fromm mit 94 Jahren gestorben". Frankfurter Rundschau (in German). 3 July 2023. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  7. ^ "Lilo Fromm Estate". Internationale Jugendbibliothek (in German). Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  8. ^ Hürlimann, Bettina (1969). Picture-Book World. Cleveland, World Pub. Co. p. 12. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  9. ^ Hürlimann, Bettina (1967). Three Centuries of Children's Books in Europe. London, Oxford U.P. p. 222. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  10. ^ a b c Kingman, Lee; Hogarth, Grace Allen; Quimby, Harriet B.; Miller, Bertha E. Mahony (1978). Illustrators of Children's Books, 1967-1976. Horn Book. pp. 27, 39, 189. ISBN 978-0-87675-018-6. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  11. ^ Wiebe, Katja (2021). ""Europe Illustrates the Grimms" or "A Magical Time at the International Youth Library"". Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature. 59 (1): 82. doi:10.1353/bkb.2021.0012. ProQuest 2520226933.
  12. ^ Haviland, Virginia; Coughlan, Margaret N. (1977). Children's literature: A Guide to Reference Sources: Second Supplement. Library of Congress. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-8444-0215-4. Retrieved 17 December 2023.