Brian Wildsmith, English painter and children’s book illustrator, Died at 86

  Artists, Writer

Brian Wildsmith was born on January 22, 1930, and died on August 31, 2016.

He was a British painter and children’s book illustrator.

Brian won the 1962 Kate Greenaway Medal for British children’s book illustration, for the wordless alphabet book ABC.

Out of all his books, the illustrations were usually as important as the text.

Given for his contribution as a children’s illustrator, Wildsmith was a runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1966 and 1968.

Wildsmith is considered as one of the greatest children’s illustrators.

Additionally, The British Library Association recognised his first book, the wordless alphabet book ABC (Oxford, 1962), with the Kate Greenaway Medal for the year’s best children’s book illustration by a British subject.

And another four of his works were subsequently commended runners-up for the Medal, all published by Oxford University Press: Oxford Book of Poetry for Children, edited by Edward Blishen, 1963; The Lion and the Rat: A Fable, by Jean de La Fontaine (1668), adapted from Aesop, also 1963; Birds, 1967; and The Owl and the Woodpecker, 1971.

Each page of Birds illustrates a term such as “gaggle of geese” – The Owl and the Woodpecker is a story both written and illustrated by Wildsmith

Brian Wildsmith passed away at 86 years old.