Willy Pogany

Willy Pogany
Illustration from Walk Me Through My Dreams by Joe Lindsay (1911)
Born	Vilmos Andreas Pogány August 1882 Szeged, Austria-Hungary
Died	30 July 1955 Manhattan, New York City
Nationality	United States
Known for	painting
Notable work	illustrated books
Movement	Art Nouveau

William Andrew ("Willy") Pogany (born Vilmos Andreas Pogány) (August 1882 – 30 July 1955) was a prolific Hungarian illustrator of children's books and others. His contemporaries include C. Coles Phillips, Joseph Clement Coll, Edmund Dulac, Harvey Dunn, Walter Everett, Harry Rountree, Sarah Stilwell Weber, and N.C. Wyeth. He is best known for his pen and ink drawings of myths and fables. A large portion of Pogany's work is described as Art Nouveau. Pogany's artistic style is heavily fairy-tale orientated and often feature motifs of mythical animals such as nymphs and pixies. He paid great attention to botanical details. He used dreamy and warm pastel scenes with watercolors, oil paintings, and especially pen and ink. Painstakingly detailed and confident, Pogany's pen and ink pieces portray the true extent of his talent.

Pogany was born in Szeged, Austria-Hungary. He studied at Budapest Technical University and in Munich and Paris. He spent his early childhood with his brothers and sisters in a large farmhouse full of chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, pigs, and horses.

When he was six, his parents took him to Budapest where he would later be sent to school. He had early ambitions on becoming an engineer in the hopes of looking after his mother after his father died. He especially liked to row and to play soccer. In his spare time, he drew pictures and painted. He enjoyed painting and drawing so much he decided to be an artist. He attended Budapest Technical School for less than a year, during this time he took art classes for six weeks. He sold his first painting to a wealthy patron for $24. He spent his early twenties attending art school and would later travel to Munich, Paris, and London before coming to the United States in 1914.