The Cultural Tutor on X This Painting Is Over 100 Years Old. It Was Made by a Swedish Illustrator Called John Bauer, One of the Most Important Artists You've Never Heard Of. His Revolutionary Art Influenced
The Cultural Tutor on X: “This painting is over 100 years old. It was made by a Swedish illustrator called John Bauer, one of the most important artists you’ve never heard of. His revolutionary art influenced everything from graphic novels to animated films to video games, and here’s why… https://t.co/J8jhM9diSi" / X #
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You can see why John Bauer has been so influential; thousands grew up with his drawings, which were published in the annual anthology of Swedish folkore called “Among Gnomes and Trolls”. The design of parts of Minecraft was inspired by his depictions of forests and caves:
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]( https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1778076733109158208/photo/1)
He was never happy with his own work, always haunted by self-doubt, and felt that he had never achieved his goal of closing the gap between “real art” and “illustration”. But, to others, he *had* shown that the latter could be just as good as the former, in its own way.
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]( https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1778076738112610460/photo/1)
Because from those rather drab 19th century illustrations something new had emerged. Bauer’s fairytales are genuinely compelling, even frightening, and darkly magical. These look familiar to us because this sort of illustration has become common; back then it was revolutionary.
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]( https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1778076743225475235/photo/1)
Still, you can see Bauer’s doubts in his self-portrait:
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]( https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1778076749743452228/photo/1)
The full influence of Bauer is hard to quantify. No doubt he was immensely influential in his homeland, and people like Brian Froud and Neil Gaiman have acknowledged his work. But Bauer’s impact on everything from animation to video games is likely far greater than we realise.
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]( https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1778076753606406183/photo/1)
He represents a turning point from the decidedly stale world of 19th century illustration to the modern era whereby illustration â including comics, graphic novels, animated films, and most recently video games â have become a fully fledged genre of their own.
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]( https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1778076758832545859/photo/1)
Bauer was not alone in doing this, of course. In Britain there was Arthur Rackham, who like Bauer illustrated tales from folklore and the operas of Richard Wagner also.
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]( https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1778076765165859117/photo/1)