Mercè Llimona i Raymat

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Mercè Llimona i Raymat (born April 16, 1914 in Barcelona , † November 29, 1997 in Barcelona ) was a Catalan children's book illustrator. The characters acting in her drawings are characterized by high intensity and great tenderness. Mercè Llimona was the daughter of the painter Joan Llimona i Bruguera and niece of the sculptor Josep Llimona i Bruguera . Together with her sister Núria Llimona i Raymat , she followed in the artistic footsteps of her father and uncle.

life and work

Mercè Llimona attended the Escola de les Dames Negres in Barcelona. When she was 12 years old, her father died. Despite the family's now more difficult economic situation, she continued to attend school and enrolled in 1929 at the age of 15 to study art at Lotja . Here, as well as at the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc , she acquired basic artistic training. Her actual training, however, took place in the sculptor's workshop of her uncle Josep Llimona. The great artistic role model as a children's book illustrator for Mercè Llimona was Arthur Rackham . But she was also influenced by Sybille von Olfers , Louis Maurice Boutet de Monvel , Kate Greenaway , Randolph Caldecott , Lola Anglada , Joan Junceda and Wilhelm Busch .

The influence of the French illustrators Lola Anglada and Joan Junceda can already be seen in her first works La dona que no volia rentar els plats (“The woman who doesn't want to wash the dishes”) and in Les santetes (“The little saints”). The two drawings illustrate the collection of folk tales published by Valeri Serra i Boldú in the Políglota publishing house. From 1932 to 1937 she worked as a lecturer at the Escola Blanquerna until, due to the Spanish Civil War, she fled to the Dames Negres in Paris, who gave her a room. Through the agency of the Dames Negres , she worked for La Bonne Presse , the most important Catholic publisher in France at the time. Soon after, she went to the Frankish-dominated publishing city of San Sebastian . Her sister lived here with her husband. She first went on a trip to Europe with both of them. Upon her return she worked for the right-aligned child and youth magazines Pelayo and from the union of the Falangist Flechas and Pelayos emerged magazine Flechas y Pelayos . This magazine, which glorified the military, served an indoctrinating, fascist national education. In Pelayo o Margaritina , the girls' section of this magazine, she published drawings on religious subjects. Until 1956 Llimona also worked with the magazines Chicos (boys) and Chicas (girls), which were founded by the publisher Consuelo Gil . Before the end of the war, she was invited by Franco supporters to the international exhibition Art Sacre in Vitoria .

Then she went back to Barcelona. This was followed by a period of intensive illustration work. Her works became important in and for the heavily oppressed Catalonia. She created drawings for communion and death notes, for business cards, posters and for advertising as well as bookplates . She created drawings for magazines, children's books and, after the 1950s, for adult books too. Gradually it moved to the center of cultural life in Barcelona. From the 1960s on, she helped design new Catalan magazines such as Cavall Fort and L'Infantil . From 1936 to 1966 she was the first president of the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc and also president of the Associació Professional d'Il·lustradors (API, Association of Illustrators). From the 1970s she adapted her figures to the new times. These late figures increasingly reveal their rheumatic polyartritis on their arm and hand, which they had already diagnosed in 1952 . In the late work she worked with fewer lines, more stylized and abstracted. Their colors softened. The works from this period show an influence from Kate Greenaway and the Pre-Raphaelites .

From 1943 Mercè was married to the lawyer and economist Félix Escalas i Fàbrega. The couple had five children. At no time did she give up her work in the studio. In 1952, shortly after the birth of their last child, Mercè Llimona was diagnosed with rheumatic polyartitis on the arms and legs. This illness changed her life suddenly. In recent years she only drew with a Japanese brush because she could no longer hold a pencil.

Appreciation

Mercè Llimona has received numerous prizes and awards. In 1984 she received the Generalitat de Catalunya award for best children's book illustrator. She was awarded the Creu-de-Sant-Jordi for her artistic achievements . Llimona created numerous figures and characters such as El muñeco de papel , Chupete or La petita Alícia , who have captured the hearts of generations of Catalan and Spanish children. Her work is full of humor and great imagination.

literature

  • Enciclopèdia Catalana: Llimona i Raymat, Mercè . In: Gran enciclopèdia catalana. 2nd edition 5th reprint 1992. Volume 14 . Enciclopèdia catalana, Barcelona 1987, ISBN 84-7739-011-8 , p. 83 (Catalan).
  • Enciclopèdia.cat: Mercè Llimona i Raymat. Retrieved June 16, 2018 (Catalan).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b So the evaluation of: Enciclopèdia Catalana: Llimona i Raymat, Mercè . In: Gran enciclopèdia catalana. 2nd edition 5th reprint 1992. Volume 14 . Enciclopèdia catalana, Barcelona 1987, ISBN 84-7739-011-8 , p. 83 (Catalan).
  2. ↑ a b So the evaluation of: Núria Rius Vernet ( Diccionari biogràfic de dones ): Mercè Llimona i Raymat (biography). Generalitat de Catalunya, Consell de Mallorca, Xarxa Vives d'Universitats, October 2, 2010, accessed June 16, 2018 (Catalan).
personal data
SURNAME Llimona i Raymat, Mercè
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catalan children's book illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 1997
Place of death Barcelona