Esphyr Slobodkina
| Esphyr Slobodkina | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 22, 1908 Chelyabinsk, Russia |
| Died | July 21, 2002 (aged 93) Glen Head, New York |
| Nationality | American (naturalized) |
| Education | National Academy of Design |
| Known for | Artist, author |
| Notable work | Caps for Sale |
| Movement | abstraction |
| Spouse(s) | Ilya Bolotowsky (m. 1933–1938) William Urquhart (m. 1960–1963) |
| Awards | Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, 1958 |
Esphyr Slobodkina (September 22, 1908 – July 21, 2002) was a popular artist, author, and illustrator, best known for her classic children's picture book Caps for Sale. Slobodkina was a celebrated avant garde artist and feminist in the middle part of the 20th century.
Esphyr Slobodkina (ESS-phere sloh-BOD-kee-nah) was born in Chelyabinsk, Russia in 1908. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, she emigrated with her family to Harbin, Manchuria (China), where she studied art and architecture. Slobodkina immigrated to the United States in 1928. She enrolled at the National Academy of Design. It was there that she met her future husband, Russian-born Ilya Bolotowsky (they divorced in 1938). Along with Ilya, Slobodkina was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group, which began amid controversy in 1936. Like other Russian modernists, surrounded by ancient icons and a rich craft tradition, Slobodkina developed a lifelong appreciation of clear, rich colors, and flat, stylized forms.
According to her biography on the HarperCollins website,
In 1938 Slobodkina met the children's author Margaret Wise Brown. In an effort to find work as an illustrator, Slobodkina wrote and illustrated a story with collage called Mary And The Poodies to present to Brown. This began a new career for Slobodkina, who illustrated many children's stories for Ms. Brown (including Sleepy ABCs and the Big and Little series) while still continuing her work as an abstract artist.
In the late 1930s, Slobodkina began to write and illustrate her own children's books. Among her 24 published works Caps for Sale (1940) is considered a children’s book classic; it has sold more than two million copies and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Caps for Sale won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958. Other children’s works include The Wonderful Feast (written in 1928, first published in 1955), The Clock (1956), The Long Island Ducklings (1961), and Pezzo the Peddler and the Circus Elephant (1967), reissued as Circus Caps for Sale (2002).
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