\n\tMadeline at the Paris Flower Market, 1955<\/em>; Oil on canvas<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \n\tVia the New York Historical Society<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \n\tFollowing in the footsteps of the Morgan Library\u2019s \u201cThe Little Prince: A New York Story\u201d and the New York Public Library\u2019s \u201cThe ABC of It: Why Children\u2019s Books Matter,\u201d the New-York Historical Society\u2019s foray into children\u2019s literature, \u201cMadeline in New York: The Art of Ludwig Bemelmans,\u201d is on display until October 19th. Children, nostalgic adults, and fans of Bemelmans\u2019 illustrations will find much to enjoy, though little that surprises.<\/p>\n \n\tHonoring the 75th<\/sup> anniversary of Madeline<\/em>\u2019s publication, the exhibit traces the life of illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans and the development of one of children\u2019s literature\u2019s most beloved heroines. Undeterred by appendicitis, tigers, or the naughty boy next door, Madeline, though the smallest of the twelve little girls in Miss Clavell\u2019s care, has always been \u201cthe bravest of all.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tConstantly in trouble as a child, Bemelmans became a champion of the small, overlooked, and misunderstood. He believed that young people were intelligent and deserved good work. Writing to his editor, he noted: \u201cWe are writing for children but not for idiots.\u201d Viewers of the exhibit, whether children or non-idiotic adults, will appreciate the way the New-York Historical Society has taken Bemelmans\u2019s work seriously.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe exhibit follows the arc of Bemelmans\u2019 life\u2014from his childhood in Germany to his early death in 1962. Born to a Belgian mother and German father, Bemelmans\u2019 early years were rocky\u2014his father left the family for the governess, and Bemelmans struggled in school. As a teenager, after failing one grade three times, he was offered the options of reform school or emigration to America. He chose America, and in 1914 he arrived in New York to work for his uncle\u2019s hotel\u2014hence Madeline\u2019s appearance now at the Society.<\/p>\n \n\tBemelmans loved drawing, and in the 1920s he began publishing cartoons ranging from \u201cThe Thrilling Adventures of Count Bric-a-Brac\u201d to a series of Jell-O ads entitled \u201cThe Prince Gets His Just Desserts.\u201d The neat lines and coloring bear no resemblance to the exuberant colors and slapdash lines of the Madeline books, but hints of Madeline\u2019s themes emerge from the early work. In \u201cSilly Willy,\u201d the rhyming couplets recount the resourcefulness of a very small and rather lonely seal who is stacking books in order to reach the phone:<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m glad that Shakespeare and Scott<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Have written such a lot.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Here\u2019s the history of Rome,<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A very, very heavy tome<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A book of poems from my aunt,<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And those are all the books I want<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For I am small and all alone and<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cannot reach the telephone.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tAt the encouragement of a children\u2019s book editor at Viking, Bemelmans began writing books in the 1930s and published Hansi <\/em>in 1934. In 1938, he began inventing his most iconic character, inspired by a little girl he met while in the hospital for a cycling accident, and the next year he began to write Madeline <\/em>on the back of a menu in Pete\u2019s Tavern, a still-extant restaurant on Irving Place in Manhattan. \u00a0He published the book with Simon & Schuster in 1939 the week before World War II broke out.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cFor me, Madeline is therapy in the dark hours,\u201d Bemelmans wrote. \u00a0That therapy took place mainly in the bathtub, but he also wrote and drew while riding the train\u2014or driving a car. Aware of the risk, he fastened a medallion of St. Christopher to his dashboard to keep himself safe. He designed the medallion himself, and his St. Christopher has Madeleine, the name of Bemelmans\u2019s wife, tattooed on his arm.<\/p>\n \n\tThe majority of the exhibit consists of full-sized paintings from the various Madeline books, the colors far more saturated and vibrant than they appear on the covers of the books themselves. \u201cIn Rain,\u201d painted in 1939, shows the iconic two straight lines of little girls along with Miss Clavell. \u2018They Left the House at Half Past Nine\u201d shows the girls in a bright yellow world, \u201cAnd Sometimes They Were Very Sad\u201d shows them in a very gray space, pitying an injured policeman.\u00a0 All the paintings display Bemelmans\u2019s Matisse-like style: quick dark lines and saturated jewel-tones painted with gouache or watercolor.<\/p>\n \n\t \n\t \n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t \n\t \n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe drawing has to sit on the paper as if you smacked a spoon of whipped cream on a plate,\u201d wrote Bemelmans, and most of his Madeline <\/em>paintings do convey that kind of richness, immediacy, and silliness. His other work on display is less compelling.<\/p>\n \n\tIn his later years, Bemelmans tried to turn from writing children\u2019s books to producing more serious adult work\u2014doing design work for hotels and running his own Paris bistro. His murals at the Carlyle are the only lasting results of these efforts.\u00a0 While his sketches of \u201cThe Life of an Innkeeper\u201d are amusing, his book about the hotel business lacks the staying power of Madeline. \u00a0One standout from this period is a series of drawings Bemelmans produced for a 1950 Town & Country<\/em> memoir of his time at the old Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York.<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t \n\t\u201cBy applying myself thoroughly to the study of kitchen and the cellar,\u201d 1950<\/em> \n\tMuseum-goers looking to see the arc of Bemelmans\u2019s development or insights into his creative process will be mostly disappointed. In order to maximize his income, Bemelman first sold excerpts of his stories to magazines, next sold the finished book to a publisher, and finally sold full-sized versions of the illustrations through a friend\u2019s gallery. As a result, he seems to have done more expanding than revising down of his work, and there are few discarded pieces on display. (He also didn\u2019t recognize the value of his own sketches; Bemelman\u2019s gallerist rescued one of the few rough sketches on display from being used for kindling by the artist.)<\/p>\n \n\tBemelmans once wrote that children are \u201ca clear-eyed, critical, and hungry audience of people, all of whom are impressionable themselves, who love my pictures and sometimes even eat them.\u201d\u00a0 Recognizing his wisdom, the Historical Society offers children\u2019s teas as well as storytimes in the exhibition\u2019s gallery, providing something besides paper for young readers\u2019 nourishment. Clear-eyed and critical adults will have to fend for themselves: much as they may enjoy the large-scale paintings of their favorite illustrations, they’ll leave wishing there had been more to digest.<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMadeline in New York: The Art of Ludwig Bemelmans\u201d will be on view at the New York-Historical Society through Oct. 19.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[472],"tags":[],"dispatch-city":[],"acf":{"participants":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":null,"value":null,"field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_65fb0bff29d65","label":"Participants","name":"participants","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"user","value":null,"menu_order":0,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"role":"","return_format":"object","multiple":1,"allow_null":0,"bidirectional":0,"bidirectional_target":[],"_name":"participants","_valid":1}},"featured_image_credits":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_651c536113a8e","label":"Featured Image Credits","name":"featured_image_credits","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"wysiwyg","value":null,"menu_order":1,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"default_value":"","tabs":"all","toolbar":"basic","media_upload":0,"delay":0,"_name":"featured_image_credits","_valid":1}},"enable_paywall":{"simple_value_formatted":"No","value_formatted":false,"value":0,"field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_66009169342f2","label":"Enable Paywall","name":"enable_paywall","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"true_false","value":null,"menu_order":2,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_651c53615a3f7","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"message":"","default_value":0,"ui":0,"ui_on_text":"","ui_off_text":"","_name":"enable_paywall","_valid":1}}},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Bria Sandford","author_link":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/author\/bria-sandford\/"},"featured_img":null,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Dispatch<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Dispatch<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 10 years ago","modified":"Updated 11 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 31, 2014","modified":"Updated on June 13, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 31, 2014 12:45 pm","modified":"Updated on June 13, 2023 4:41 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"mfb_rest_fields":["author_meta","featured_img","jetpack_sharing_enabled","jetpack_featured_media_url","coauthors","tax_additional","comment_count","relative_dates","absolute_dates","absolute_dates_time","featured_img_caption","series_order","jetpack-related-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117414,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117413\/revisions\/117414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117413"},{"taxonomy":"dispatch-city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dispatch-city?post=117413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Description:](\"\/cm\/images\/\/l-bemelmans-1938.jpg\")
<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAnd sometimes they were very sad,\u201d 1939; from <\/em>Madeline (Simon & Schuster, 1939); Watercolor and gouache;\u00a0<\/em><\/span>via the New-York Historical Society<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Description:](\"\/cm\/images\/\/2012.jpg\")
<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\tCover for\u00a0<\/em>Madeline\u2019s Rescue (The Viking Press, 1953);<\/em> Gouache; via the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n![\"Description:](\"\/cm\/images\/\/bemelmans8image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAdieu to the Old Ritz,\u201d\u00a0Town & Country\u00a0Magazine, Vol. 104, No.4339; v<\/em>ia the New-York Historical Society<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n