Graphic Design and Typography

(b Veracruz, 1848; d Tacubaya, Mexico City, Feb 14, 1904).

Mexican illustrator and lithographer. He began his career in 1869, making prints for the weekly La ilustración potosina in San Luis Potosí. He collaborated with Alejandro Casarín and Jesús Alamilla on illustrations using engravings coloured with pen for the novel Ensalada de pollos by José Tomás de Cuéllar. In these the use of a schematic design accentuated the appearance of the figures portrayed. He created caricatures (1872–3) for La orquesta and other periodicals, but he established his reputation with caricatures (1874–6) of government figures for the weekly Hijo Ahuizote. Villasana was a member of the political party of President Porfirio Díaz and in 1880 published ferocious caricatures of Díaz’s opponents in El coyote emplumado. He was co-publisher in 1883, with Ireneo Paz, of La patria ilustrada and in 1888 he founded his own weekly, México y sus costumbres; in both periodicals he published his own caricatures of public figures. In ...

[ Duchamp, Gaston ]

(b Damville, Eure, July 31, 1875; d Puteaux, nr Paris, June 9, 1963).

French painter, printmaker and illustrator. The oldest of three brothers who became major 20th-century artists, including Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Marcel Duchamp, he learnt engraving at the age of 16 from his maternal grandfather, Emile-Frédéric Nicolle (1830–94), a ship-broker who was also a much appreciated amateur artist. In January 1894, having completed his studies at the Lycée Corneille in Rouen, he was sent to study at the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris, but within a year he was devoting most of his time to art, already contributing lithographs to Parisian illustrated newspapers such as Assiette au beurre. At this time he chose his pseudonym: Jack (subsequently Jacques) in homage to Alphonse Daudet’s novel Jack (1876) and Villon in appreciation of the 15th-century French poet François Villon; soon afterwards this new surname was combined with the family name by Raymond. Marcel Duchamp and their sister ...

(b London, May 26, 1840; d St Fillans, Perthshire, June 4, 1875).

English painter and illustrator. He acquired his training in drawing and painting through study in the British Museum (where he copied heavily from the Antique), a short period spent in an architect’s office, life classes at Leigh’s school, a studentship at the Royal Academy and three years’ employment as a draughtsman on wood with the commercial engraver Josiah Wood Whymper (1813–1903).

Walker was one of an exceptional band of young illustrators working during the 1860s. His drawings, reproduced as wood-engravings by artists such as Joseph Swain and the Dalziel brothers, appeared in all the influential magazines of the time, notably Cornhill, Good Words, Once a Week and Punch. Swain was the source of Walker’s early and important commission for the re-drawing of Thackeray’s own illustrations to The Adventures of Philip for the Cornhill (1862). Mere copying was uncongenial to Walker, but after a short time he was allowed to use his own ideas in illustrating Thackeray’s story, and these brought him critical success....

(b Teufen, April 8, 1877; d Zurich, 1943).

Swiss painter, printmaker, illustrator and theatre designer. He studied with a decorative painter in Stuttgart and briefly at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Strasbourg (1902), though he was chiefly self-taught through study trips to Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Japan, which impressed him deeply. His freely brushed, figurative style and preoccupation with such Symbolist artists as Ferdinand Hodler and Arnold Böcklin allied him with the avant-garde of his day. He was a member of the Berlin Secession, and the connections he made through the group, together with the acknowledged clarity of his stylish book illustrations, won him many commissions. In a prolific career he also produced costume and stage designs, wall frescoes and numerous prints. Later paintings showed his admiration for the flat, all-over colour planes of Cézanne. He was the brother of the writer Robert Walser (1878–1956) and illustrated a number of his books, for example Seeland...

(b Sudbury, Suffolk, Nov 26, 1821; d Melbourne, Aug 9, 1898).

Australian architect of English birth. He worked in London for the English architect and illustrator Thomas Allom (1804–72). In 1849 he emigrated to Melbourne and entered a partnership as architect and surveyor with his brother James, who was already established in business as a local builder. Their first prominent commission was St Paul’s church in the centre of Melbourne (1850), subsequently replaced by Butterfield’s Cathedral. The partnership ended in 1854, when James went to England, and Webb practised for four years in partnership with Thomas Taylor. His design for St Andrew’s church, Brighton, Melbourne (1856–7), shows unmistakable characteristics of buildings that he had sketched before leaving England. Melbourne Grammar School (1856) is the most important building of this phase, designed in the dark local bluestone, but Tudor in character. Webb’s work is difficult to characterize. It includes two important terrace rows of houses, Burlington Terrace (...

( Reijmert )

(b The Hague, Jan 12, 1860; d Santpoort, June 25, 1937).

Dutch painter, draughtsman and illustrator . He first trained as a landscape gardener in Amsterdam. In 1878–9, however, he received lessons in painting from the cattle painter Dirk van Lokhorst (1818–93) and he was working in Drenthe, Gelderland and North Brabant. During that time he also received tuition from the marine painter Jacob Eduard van Heemskerck van Beest (1828–94). Wenckebach lived and worked in Utrecht from 1880 to 1886, in Amsterdam until 1898 and thereafter in Santpoort.

Wenckebach’s preference was for traditional genres such as land-, river- and townscapes; in the latter, his drawings of views of old Amsterdam in particular are well known. In his style of painting and choice of subject-matter, he showed himself to be a late follower of the Hague school . Through a number of publishers he received many commissions as an illustrator and designer of books. In this field he collaborated on, among other things, the Verkade albums, a large series devoted to the history and nature of the Netherlands, and various children’s books. He is, however, particularly well known for his work for the ...

(b Frankfurt an der Oder, May 9, 1843; d Berlin, Jan 4, 1915).

German painter and illustrator . He studied at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin from 1859 and in 1862 moved to Karlsruhe, where he studied with Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, Ludwig Des Coudres (1820–78) and Adolf Schrödter. Under the influence of Karl Friedrich Lessing he became interested in history painting. He was a friend of the poet Victor von Scheffel and illustrated his works (e.g. Gaudeamus, 1867). In 1867 he was in Paris and in 1868–9 in Italy. On returning to Germany in 1870 he received his first important commissions. He specialized in detailed scenes of contemporary events, particularly those involving soldiers. His best-known work, William of Prussia Proclaimed Emperor of Germany, 18th January 1870 (1877, destr.; version, Friedrichsruh, Bismarck-Mus.), depicts the event he had witnessed at Versailles; it is a typical example of his sober, Naturalistic style and his taste for patriotic subjects. In 1874 he became a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and a year later was appointed director. In ...

English family of painters and illustrators . Richard Westall (b Hertford, 1765; d London, 4 Dec 1836) was apprenticed in 1799 to John Thompson, a heraldic engraver in London. The miniaturist John Alefounder (d 1795) advised Westall to take up painting, and in 1784 he exhibited a portrait drawing (untraced) at the Royal Academy. He became a student at the Royal Academy Schools in 1785, an ARA in 1792 and an RA in 1794. He exhibited over 300 works at the Royal Academy and 70 at the British Institution, including such large watercolours as Cassandra Prophesying the Fall of Troy (exh. London, RA 1796; London, V&A), which are painted in violent and sometimes excessive colours. Others, such as The Rosebud (1791; New Haven, CT, Yale Cent. Brit. A.), tend towards a Rococo prettiness. His principal expertise was book illustration. He was employed by John Boydell, Thomas Macklin and ...

(b Châlons-sur-Marne, July 31, 1857; d Paris, Feb 4, 1926).

French illustrator, printmaker and painter . After studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Willette entered the studio of Alexandre Cabanel where he encountered Rodolphe Salis, the future founder in Montmartre of the Chat Noir cabaret (1881) and journal (1882). As a member of the Club des Hydropathes (1874–81), a group of writers, actors and artists who met regularly at a café in the Quartier Latin and from 1881 at the Chat Noir, Adolphe Willette became associated with the anti-establishment, humorous and satirical spirit of the avant-garde artistic community in Montmartre.

Willette was an early and regular illustrator of the Chat Noir and Courrier français (founded in 1885), the two principal (albeit tongue-in-cheek) chronicles of Montmartre. For two years from 1888 Willette and the poet Emile Goudeau published the satirical journal Le Pierrot: in 1896 and 1897 they collaborated on the sporadically issued journal ...

(b Mayfield, KY, April 30, 1899; d New York, NY, Jan 1, 1977).

American painter. Wilson worked as graphic artist in Chicago for five years after completing the four-year commercial art program at the Art Institute of Chicago School in 1923. He became an adept colorist with a particular interest in still life composition. Wilson hoped to grow as a painter after moving to Harlem, New York in 1928 where he worked odd jobs for wages. Three years later, he permanently relocated to Greenwich Village. He exhibited with the Harmon Foundation, at the Detroit Museum, the Contemporary Arts and Roko Galleries in New York City, and at most of the large historically black universities and colleges. Wilson socialized with important members of the New Negro arts movement such as Aaron Douglas and Jacob Lawrence whose abbreviated figurative works tempered his academic realist style ( see New Negro Movement ). His skill with linear gestures, affinity with nature, and ability to strike a coherent balance between them identify this best work. With two years of Guggenheim fellowships, he spent time with the African Americans living on South Carolina’s Sea Islands in ...

(b Kraków, Jan 15, 1869; d Kraków, Nov 28, 1907).

Polish painter, pastellist, decorative artist, illustrator, writer and theatre director . He was the son of the Kraków sculptor Franciszek Wyspiański (1836–1902) and studied at the Kraków School of Fine Arts, mostly under Władysław Łuszczkiewicz (1828–1900) and Jan Matejko. In 1889 Wyspiański and Józef Mehoffer, the school’s most talented students, were appointed to complete Matejko’s painted decorations for St Mary, Kraków, a task that prompted Wyspiański’s interest in both decorative painting and stained glass. In 1890 he travelled in Italy, Switzerland, France and Germany, and also to Prague. In 1891 he continued his training in Paris, where he remained with intervals until 1894, studying at the Académie Colarossi under Joseph Blanc, Gustave Courtois (1852–1924) and Louis Auguste Girardot (b 1858). Wyspiański also worked independently in Paris, studying paintings in the museums and fascinated by contemporary art. Through Władysław Ślewiński, he met Paul Gauguin and members of the Nabis....

( Yefimovich )

(b Kiev, Sept 28, 1900; d Moscow, October 1, 2008).

Russian graphic artist of Ukrainian birth. He received no formal artistic training, studying in the Legal Faculty of Kiev University (1917–18). He began his professional work as a caricaturist for the Kiev newspaper Krasnaya Armiya in 1919. In 1920–21 he produced agitational posters for YugROSTA (the southern department of the Russian Telegraph Agency; see Agitprop ) in Odessa and Kiev. He moved to Moscow in 1922 and began to work regularly for the newspapers Pravda, Izvestiya and Krasnaya zvezda and the magazines Ogonyok, Krokodil and others. Yefimov was principally a specialist in international affairs but in the journal Prozhektor (1924–34), apart from his regular political designs, he published caricatures and illustrations on local social themes. In 1924 Yefimov’s album Politicheskiye karikatury (‘Political caricatures’) was published in Moscow and from 1931 such albums appeared on a regular basis.

Yefimov’s early caricatures reveal the influence of the style of the satirical magazine ...

( Dmytriyevych ) [ Zamiraylo, Victor Dmitriyevich ]

(b Cherkasy, Kiev province, Nov 24, 1868; d Novy Petergof, Leningrad Region, Oct 2, 1939).

Ukrainian painter, printmaker and illustrator . He studied at the Kiev Drawing School (1881–6) under Mykhailo Murashko (1844–1909), who encouraged the independent development of his talents and taste without the pedantry of academicism or of the Wanderers. The influence of Gustave Doré is evident in his work of this period. From 1888 he participated in the exhibitions of the World of Art group, the Moscow Fellowship of Artists and the Union of Russian Artists. In Kiev he worked with Mikhail Vrubel’ on the restoration of the wall paintings in the church of St Cyril (1883–4) and on the decoration of the cathedral of St Vladimir (1885–90; initially on the basis of designs by Viktor Vasnetsov). In 1907–14 he produced the panels Battle at Kerzhenets and Subjugation of Kazan’ for the Kazan’ Station in Moscow to designs by Nicholas Roerich. In his easel works he used predominantly sepia, occasionally adding touches of watercolour, and he made extensive use of lamp-black. In ...

(b Kralingen, June 13, 1866; d Bussum, Jan 8, 1947).

Dutch sculptor. He received his first artistic training in Amsterdam, first in the form of drawing lessons from painter and illustrator Bernard Willem Wierink (1856–1939) and later at the Quellinusschool under the direction of engineer Emmanuel Constant Edouard Colinet (1840–90) and at the School for Applied Arts. There he became friendly with, among others, Joseph Mendes da Costa; through the society Labor et Ars he met Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof, Jan Eisenlöffel, H. P. Berlage, K. P. C. de Bazel and J. L. Mathieu Lauweriks. In the company of these young artists, who disliked the traditional styles, his attention was directed particularly to ancient Egyptian and Assyrian art.

In 1893 Zijl was invited by Berlage to collaborate on his building (destr. 1964) for De Algemeene life insurance company on the Damrak, Amsterdam. For this building and particularly for the Koopmansbeurs (1898–1903), Amsterdam, also by Berlage, he developed a style that can be seen as the high point of his career. This so-called ‘architecture sculpture’ is always considered as a subsidiary to the architectural concept of the whole, therefore contributing to the ...

(b Zaandijk, May 28, 1885; d Wassenaar, Sept 27, 1977).

Dutch designer and typographer . After working in the tradition of the Arts and Crafts Movement, he came into contact in 1917 with De Stijl, which fundamentally changed the course of his work. Through Vilmos Huszár and Jan Wils, he met H. P. Berlage, for whom he worked as a draughtsman, and international artists working in typographic design, such as Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitsky and Jan Tschichold. His international importance is based on typographical works, such as those he made between 1923 and 1930 for NKF, the Dutch cable works, and for PTT, the Dutch postal service. His advertisements, inspired by Dada, often used a wide range of typography and could be read as messages, poems or advertising slogans, while being appreciated simply as designs. Zwart was also active as an interior designer; his most successful work in this field was the kitchen (1938) that he designed for the ...