In Soviet times, there were many excellent illustrators and cartoonists, and they had a lot of artwork to do, not always boring political posters. At that time, a huge number of different books were published, including children's books, which needed to be illustrated. One of the masters of children's illustration was Heinrich Valk.
Those who grew up in the Soviet Union, probably remember the wonderful novels and stories of Nikolai Nosov. For the artist they were from the category of desktop, and he read them as a child with great pleasure. Nosov's stories, such as “The Fantasists” or “Vitya Maleev at School and at Home” are funny, mischievous and fun, and when combined with Valk's very accurate illustrations, they turned out to be excellent children's books, which the kids read in droves.
Master
And Valk avoided excessive lusciousness in the drawing, so characteristic of some modern children's illustrators, so they were interesting to adults.
Cover of the book “Fantasizers” with illustrations by Heinrich Valk
His drawings are precise and laconic, there are no unnecessary details and unnecessary “niceties”. But the composition is excellent and the types are correctly chosen. It is more like art nouveau than the socialist realism so familiar at the time, when the clarity and expressiveness of form prevails over careful drawing.
Illustration for the satirical fairy tale novel “Neznayka on the Moon”
Valk illustrated especially much satirical novel-tale Nosov “Neznayka on the Moon” - 217 illustrations, including color. It seemed that not a single more or less significant episode of this work was not left without his attention. And the image of Neznayka and other short people became forever associated with Valk's drawings.
Illustration for the satirical novel-tale “Neznayka on the Moon”
He drew pictures for the works of Sergei Mikhalkov, Agniya Barto, Lazar Lazar - the author of the famous story “Old Man Hottabych”. So Valk is a kind of guide in the world of children's literature, allowing kids to imagine how their favorite characters looked like.
Illustration for the satirical fairy-tale novel “Neznayka on the Moon”
But at the beginning of his life journey, he did not even think of becoming an illustrator and cartoonist. In 1936 he entered a solid medical school, but realized that medicine is not what he wanted to do all his life. Instead, he was always attracted to painting, but not serious and complex, and the one that is somewhat disparagingly called graphics - all sorts of drawings, illustrations and cartoons. True, Valk lacked artistic education, but the desire, innate sense of humor and talent was a lot.
Cover of the book Staryk Hottabych with illustrations by Heinrich Valk
In 1937, he began drawing cartoons for the newspaper Gudok. At that time it was a solid publication, with which collaborated Ilya Ilf, Yevgeny Petrov, Valentin Kataev, Yuri Olesha, Mikhail Bulgakov and others. And soon on denunciation sent to places not so remote Henry's father - Oskar Valk, well though justice prevailed and two years later he was released. But who knows how much his relatives and the prisoner himself had to experience.
Valk diligently studied and accumulated the necessary experience, the good thing was from whom - his teachers were art historian and artist Nikolai Radlov and cartoonist Lev Brodaty. Together with Brodaty, he later worked extensively in the magazine Krokodil, drawing very accurate and funny cartoons.
Strada exams (Does this really need to be read for exams? No, it's just a list of things to read.....)
For example, he sympathized with the poor students who had to study too much when preparing for exams. He probably remembered his studies at medical school.
And what about the program for the youngest children - even the big ones, especially jealous wives cover their eyes so that they don't look at the overly attractive presenters. By the way, Miss Russia Oksana Fedorova once hosted “Good Night Kids”, so this cartoon became prophetic. Good humor is always relevant, because it touches on eternal themes that do not depend on the immediate situation, like the cartoons of Heinrich Valk.
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