This
summer the Nordic Watercolour Museum lings its
doors wide to a picture cavalcade for the whole
family: Elsa Beskow’s original illustrations to
her best loved children’s picture books. More
than a hundred watercolours will be on show, with
richly preserved colours and a brilliance that
no printing press can equal. Elsa Beskow published
her first book, The Tale of the Little Little
Old Woman in 1887. She was then 23 years old.
She was to continue creating children’s picture
books until her death in 1953.
Nowadays Elsa Beskow´s books are regarded
as a classic. Books such as Peter in Blueberry
Land, The Flowers’ Festival, Ollie’s Ski Trip,
The Sun Egg and all the Peter and Lotta Adventures
with Aunt Green, Aunt Brown and Aunt Lavender
have been read by generation after generation.
Sullied by children’s fingers, they are presented
to new generations. But is this just the expression
of parental nostalgia or do her books have something
to say even to children of today? In our exhibition
we try to view her classic books through contemporary
eyes. Our aim is to create an exhibition that
speaks to both children and adults, and to fill
the museum with activities and gatherings across
the generational divide.
With this exhibition on Elsa Beskow’s pictorial
world the NordicWatercolourMuseumis pursuing further
the focus on children’s illustrated books as art
form that we initiated in December 2007 with the
exhibition Bilden, barnet och berättelsen
(Children´s Picture Books). That exhibition
presented the work of twenty Nordic and international
illustrators of children’s books and together
with seminars and a range of activities laid the
foundation for further study on this theme.
She created her books surrounded by everyday concerns,
with her husband Natanael Beskow, artist, preacher
and headmaster of Birkagården, and her six
sons. It is in itself a tale revealing the life
she led and giving us glimpses into life in Sweden
in the early twentieth century.
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