Carl Offterdinger, The Ilustrator of Fairy Tales
Carl Offterdinger was born on January 8th, 1829 in Stuttgart where he mostly lived and worked until his death on January 12th 1889.
We don't know much about his private life. He studied at Heinrich von Rustige and soon specialized in genre painting and illustration. Carl Offterdinger illustrated numerous books for children and young adults. He also contributed to several textbooks and magazines.
Some of his best-known works are Gulliver's Travels, Liechtenstein, The Nutcracker, Robinson Crusoe, Till Eulenspiegel, and, not surprisingly different editions of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. This website will focus on them.
Carl Offterdinger often contributed with other illustrators. The pictures (originally aquarelles) in this website, for instance, were published in the 1884 edition of German Fairy Tales for Children where Heinrich Leutemann contributed illustrations for a few stories as well.
Another instance of such collaboration was Nice Fairy Tales where Offterdinger's work was published with illustrations by Fedor Flinzer and Josef Emil Dolleschal.
We also know that he won several prizes and was in some cases signed as Professor Offterdinger which gives us a clue about his academic career which he very likely built in Stuttgart.. Yet, on the other hand, copies of old documents are not always reliable.
The fact is he would probably also design picture postcards which started to become popular right at the time when he died. What caused his death? We don't know yet.
The life and work of this very productive artist until further notice remains a bit of a mystery.
We can still enjoy his work:
- Brave Little Tailor
- Briar Rose
- Brother and Sister
- Cinderella
- Hansel and Gretel
- Puss in Boots
- Red Cap
- Snow White
Alle these fairy tales were published in 1884 by Verlag von Wilhelm Effenberger, Stuttgart together with three fairy tales illustrated by Heinrich Leutemann, under title German Fairy Tales for Children and subtitle Twelve Favorite Fairy Tales for Young People.
This website participates in the Vintage Artists' Project, a project run by enthusiasts who decided to preserve the work of old masters in digital form for future generations.
To find out more about it, visit: https://ameblo.jp/vintageartists
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