Illustration

Forms

The illustration, carried out by an draftsman-illustrator, artist, engraver or photographer, recovers a large variety of fields:

the literary illustration: novels, news, accounts, covers of books, literature for youth;

the documentary and technical illustration: dictionaries, encyclopedias, works sets of themes and of popularization, directions for use…

the illustration of press: illustrations of articles, drawing of humor…

the advertizing and commercial illustration: press releases, posters, conditionings (boxes and packing), etc, postcards…

This list is not restrictive and the borders between these various categories are not clear and fluctuate. Except exceptions, the illustration is distinguished from the work of art in what it accompanies a text, and which it is reproduced with multiple specimens by the processes of printing works or the print. But an original work of art is frequently used like illustration. The original of an illustration can often be regarded as work of art independently of the context of its realization.

Employment

Illustrations can present a range of topics and be employed for a variety of functions such:

To emphasize the nuances of an account.
To inspire a feeling with the reader.
To personify the characters of an account
To visualize for the example article of a university or scientific work.
To schematize instructions in a user guide, or directions for use.
To make sell a product.

History

Origins

The origin of the illustration merges with the first illustrated representations, the Enluminure S realized with the Middle Ages and the Rebirth can be regarded as the first examples of this art in Occident and in the Middle East. Among remarkable illuminations, those appear illustrating the Very Rich Hours of the duke of Berry .

In the Far East, and more particularly in China, Korea and with the Japan, the prints have a similar function, but more generally in the pictorial art of these countries, painting always contained a short poetic text until the 19th century.

The 15th century sees the invention of printing works, the books are illustrated engravings on wood. At the time of the following centuries, the techniques of engraving evolve/move, passing from wood to copper (copper-plate engraving, etching) and, at the end of the 18th century, to the lithography. The engraved boards of the Encyclopedia of Diderot and D' Alembert are an example of illustrations of this period.

Beginning of the 19th century

At the beginning of the 19th century diffusion of the newspapers and almanacs, and the popularity of the news and serials which are published there, sees developing the illustration of press. Notable figures of this new discipline are Hablot K. Browne and in France, Honore Daumier. In the field of the edition, the encyclopedic works generalize its use.

The golden age of the illustration

Second half of the 19th century is regarded as the golden age of the illustration in Europe and to the the United States. The development of the edition general public and the appearance of the magazines accentuate the diffusion of the illustrations. The technique of the Engraving on wood upright , with engravers virtuosos, makes it possible to return in the least detail the work of the draftsmen. The invention of novel methods of impression (in particular the Photoengraving) releases the illustrators who employ novel methods and carry out the first Western illustrations colors.

In France this discipline is high with the row of art by Paul Gavarni, J.J. Grandville, and especially Gustave Gilded of which the illustration of the Fables of the Fountain , the Tales of Perrault , or the Don Quichotte of Miguel de Cervantes make date. Its dark illustrations of poverty, in the London of the Years 1860, were outstanding examples of social comment in Article Some great painters like Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas is also tried to illustrate poetry of Edgar Poe or news of Guy of Maupassant.

The end of the century generalizes the advertizing poster color thanks to the technique of the Lithographie, Jules Chéret, Eugene Grasset, Mucha and Toulouse-Lautrec invents the modern Affiche.

At the United States this golden age accounts years 1880 for 1914. Arthur Burdett Frost and Howard Pyle, founder of the school of the Brandywine Valley, reach the celebrity by illustrating works intended for youth and have an influence on the work of N.C. Wyeth (its pupil) and Norman Rockwell.

In Great Britain, the illustrations of John Tenniel strongly print the imaginary collective of the readers of Lewis Carroll. Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac is representative of the influence of the préraphaélites on the British illustration, by contrast Beatrix Potter illustrates its own tales in a style naturalist putting in scene animals equipped at the victorienne mode. Other illustrators like Aubrey Beardsley, influenced by the japonism, adopt a style purified in black and white with the manner of the Nabis.

From 1914 to 1945

A movement is initiated in Latin America by Santiago Martinez Delgado while it was student of art with Chicago, it works in the Années 1930 for the magazine Esquire , and later in Colombia for the magazine Vida . Disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright its illustrations are influenced by the style art-déco.

In the Thirties the influence of the Expressionisme is felt in the work of the British independent illustrator Arthur Wragg. It stylizes forms obtained by the technique of the Pochoir such as it was employed in the posters of propaganda.

On the United States the press magazine imposes the names of J.C. Leyendecker, James Montgomery Flagg, and Norman Rockwell whose covers for the Saturday Evening Post depict the life of average American.

from 1945 to our days

During second half of the 20th century, the press magazine gives up little by little the illustration drawn with the profit of the Photographie. But the illustrators remain active in the fields of publicity, the edition for youth and the scientific edition and in certain newspapers (tuck pattern, with newspapers richly illustrated such as Charlie Hebdo or the Duck connected ). Editors of art called upon great painters like Matisse, Moretti, or Pablo Picasso which for example illustrated the Metamorphoses of Ovide for the editor Skira. In the Years 1980 - 90, audio-visual mediums such as television sometimes used the services of illustrators, who by means of a Graphics tablet caricature or illustrate the treated topics, on line. This type of illustration requiring of large quality of improvisation and speed of drawing, is sometimes also used at the time of Symposium S or demonstrations of this type.
Depuis the end of the 20th century, the traditional techniques continue to be taught and used (Art schools, schools of Graphic art…), but the Multi-media illustration and the Infographie permitted by the development of the computer tools becomes increasingly present; Thus large encyclopedia-paper exist there also now in multi-media version (CD-ROM + bonds Internet), always using the photographic image, drawing and reproductions, but also the sound, the synthesized images, animations, the videos…) The drawn illustration begins again in popularity in the specialized magazines (data processing, with Hebdogiciel , female, etc) and explodes in the growing number of magazines for youth.

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