Brian Wildsmith
| Brian Wildsmith | |
|---|---|
| Born |
22 January 1930 Penistone, South Yorkshire |
| Died | 31 August 2016 (aged 86) Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes, France |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | |
| Known for | Painting and illustrations |
| Spouse(s) | Aurélie Ithurbide (m. 1955–2015, her death); 4 children |
Brian Lawrence Wildsmith (22 January 1930 – 31 August 2016) was a British painter and children's book illustrator. He won the 1962 Kate Greenaway Medal for British children's book illustration, for the wordless alphabet book ABC. In all his books, the illustrations were usually as important as the text.
For his contribution as a children's illustrator, Wildsmith was a runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1966 and 1968.
Brian Wildsmith was born in 1930 in Penistone, a small market town in the West Riding, now in South Yorkshire, England. He was educated at the De La Salle College for Boys in Sheffield, but from the age of seventeen studied at the Barnsley School of Art (1946–1949). It was also while he was seventeen that he met Aurélie Ithurbide, daughter of the chef at Wentworth Woodhouse, whom he would later marry. From Barnsley he won a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he studied for three years (1949–1952), and where Sir William Coldstream was among his teachers.
On leaving the Slade School he did National Service in the British Army. In 1955 he married his wife Aurélie, and in the same year began teaching at Selhurst High School (1955–1957). At this time he began designing book jackets for the publisher John Murray and others, and line illustrations for children's books published by Faber and Faber, Penguin Books, Oxford University Press and others. His work as a line draughtsman continued from 1957 to 1964. From 1960 to 1965 he also taught for one day a week at Maidstone College of Art (now part of Kent Institute of Art & Design).
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