THE ILLUSTRATIONS OF JAN MARCIN SZANCER HD
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- Опубліковано 6 лип 2024
- In his lifetime Jan Marcin Szancer somehow found the time to write articles and scripts, work extensively in theatre, film and TV as a set and costume designer and even took occasional acting roles. He was the very first artistic director of The national Polish TV company between 1952 and 1958 and he also worked as a professor at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts for over two decades. But none of this is going to feature in this video as I'm going to concentrate exclusively on his astonishing volume of work as an illustrator.
I should also point out that finding precise years of publication has proven more than usually challenging and not all can necessarily be relied on. Neither can my desperate attempts at Polish pronunciation.
And my apologies for the freudian slip-up in the thumbnail and titling, which claims I illustrated the video. Obviosly wishful thinking on my part .
Oh finally our polish legend! Thank you! Nowdays books with his illustrations are very expensive. For example you can buy one with Andersens tales for 450 zł or more.
Many thanks for your appreciation of my tribute to the genius of Szancer.
One further step towards Pete's goal of no illustrator being forgotten. Thanks again, Pete. Most enjoyable.
Thanks as always - I'm glad you appreciate his work.
Szancer certainly has a highly individualistic stye, which I like. To me, many of his works seem to swirl and have an energy and dynamism that makes them unusual. Thanks for searching out these little known (at least to me) but highly talented illustrators Pete.
Thank you Pete Beard. Miss Jenny
You are welcome. Thanks for the comment.
Thanks as ever for your appreciation and I'm glad your own opinion of his work is similar to my own. One of the most fascinating subjects I've covered to date.
@@petebeard Hi Pete, with so many comments being posted to each of your great videos, you really no longer need to respond to me. I don't want you to be one of the straws that break the camels back. So, if you don't answer my comments I will just assume that all is well in the world. Keep up the good work, best regards Mark.
@@TheMarkEH Hi Mark, and thanks for the offer to ignore future comments...but it really is no hardship, and at the risk of making me sound like a sentimental old duffer I don't take any comments - and particularly those from more committed viewers such as yourself - for granted. It's actually one of the more pleasurable aspects if having the channel. Granted it does get a bit "thanks for your thanks for my thanks for your comment..." but civilised behaviour is always the best option in my book.
I drop in on this channel every couple of weeks when I find myself wanting to look at some beautiful art and illustration, and every time I can't believe how absolutely fantastic this channel is. The level of detail and knowledge and the meticulous presentation of these great little-known (to me at least!) illustrators and artists is simply peerless. Pete should be in charge of arts programming on BBC 4 or something. Just brilliant on every level.
Hello and many thanks for your enthusiastic comment about the channel and its content. It really is a boost to my morale to know some viewers value what I'm trying to do with the series. The BBC can go and boil their heads as far as I'm concerned, but I wouldn't mind a Netflix series....
One of the splendidly delightful benefits of being alert to each new video by Pete is that these lessons are an effective and enduring antidote to the somber and monolithic crush of disquieting news, real or concocted, that is foisted upon us ad nauseum. Seeing all this richness, how can I be anything less than immensely grateful that there are still stars in the artistic firmament to discover and enjoy, like Jan Marcin Szancer, previously unknown to me completely?
The unbridled vibrancy in color or intelligent muting of tone, the sheer wild joy of his linework, the varied approaches in brushwork and inventive design of figure and backdrop in these books has me going back and stopping along the timeline again and again to capture all the shimmering life within these pictures.
Thank you Pete---you are so constant in bringing all of us a crafted banquet that is of utmost urgency on so many levels, and as an artist yourself, you inform each installment with a care that speaks to the deepest of artistic empathies and integrity. Thank you always!
To say that I'm grateful for the intensely positive nature of your comments would be the understatement of the year. Corny as it may sound I'm genuinely moved by such praise, not as a boost to my ego, but a confirmation that I'm not alone in feeling these talented people from the past deserve better. And I can think of no better subject than the genius of Szancer to make that point on my behalf. Many thanks.
He's the star illustrator of my childhood! 😍😍😍
Many thanks for your comment. He was a true genius as far as I'm concerned.
Thank you for your tireless effort to exposure your audience to the wonderful world of graphic art.
Thanks for your appreciation - such comments are always very welcome.
Splendid video again, thank you
Thanks a lot for your comment, and I'm delighted you enjoyed his work.
Very modern and classic at the same time, what a creative style ! Thank you for the discovery !
Thanks a lot for your comment. Like many of the greats his work has a truly timeless appeal.
Thank you kind Sir for bringing such nostalgic memories of Szancer's work as always, in fantastic art and illustrations series.
Many thanks for your appreciation of my tribute to this genius illustrator
One of your best, Mr. Beard. Szancer was a genius.
Thanks fr the comment and you'll get no argument from me on that score.
His attractive and engaging style for children's books reminds me of some golden book illustrators. Beautiful! Thanks again for enlighting us!
Thanks for your comment and appreciation. I'd struggle to think of a more fascinating illustrator than Szancer
This work has a spirit , life of its own handed down from the artists ...so beautiful engaging and romantic , I want to be a child again , and read books like these. I am 63 years. 🙏🏻
Thanks a lot for your comment and response to Scanzer's work. I'm 73 and feel the same way.
After watching this video, I find it no surprise he is still known and respected in Poland. I, too, hope you have brought him to the attention of an international audience.
Thanks for the comment, and I certainly hope I have created some new admirers of his work.
I grew up with Szancer’s artwork, and recognised most of the illustrations you showed. I travel regularly back and forth to Poland and often rummage through antiquarian bookshops and always pick up books with his art if ever I find them. Thank you for a lovely albeit short biography of his life and art.
Many thanks for your appreciation, and Im glad you enjoyed this tribute to a truly unique illustrator.
Absolutely beloved illustrator of many books from my childhood. Thank you for this video!
Thanks for the comment. I wish he had been part of my childhood, but the books weren't published in Britain at the time.
Thanks, Pete. Another very pleasurable video.
Hundreds of books, over two decades as a professor at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts and six years as the first artistic director of The national Polish TV company. I wonder how he found the time. I particularly loved the monochromes.
Thanks for the comment. I await the day that I make a video about someone, and conclude "so and so was a true genius as an illustrator but he was also quite lazy and didn't create much work". I suspect I'll wait a very long time.
Wonderful artist! Very dynamic and with great flair in his line drawings, masterful when using colours (he must have used every single one in his possession)! My wife was smiling and admiring during the entire video...
Thanks to both of you for another favourable response. I must say Szancer is for me one of the greatest and most entertaining I've featured so far.
Omg for an artist to lose work in a fire!!! I love his monochrome and how he captures facial expressions . His work was very muddy though. I wonder if he used that wax egg technique on some. Thank you as always for your vision into these artists. 💚💚💚
Thanks a lot for your comment and appreciation. I think it's possible the "muddy" quality may be the quality of the scanned/printed images rather than his actual artwork.
Producing 6 books in one year is an amazing feat. As a children's book illustrator, I once produced 4 books in a single year, and that kept me very busy. So much of the time (for me at least) was waiting on approvals from the art director and making any necessary changes that were asked for. I don't know what sort of freedom that Szancer had in regards to his books, but if he went through all that sort of process, I'm sure he had little time for anything else in his life. lol. A tremendously skilled illustrator like Szancer is certainly someone for other illustrators and fans of illustration to seek out and explore. Thanks for the great video, Pete!
Thanks as usual for commenting, and I'm very pleased to see that the talents and productivity of this great illustrator resonated with you.
@@petebeard I absolutely appreciate him. I love how he can shift his style to suit his project. I try to do that too. As a license illustrator, I'm asked to draw things in different ways. Not a lot of artists can manage style shifting. Clearly Szancer was extremely skilled at doing just that.
The development of his aren’t is amazing, and he really understood how to appeal to children. Having spent 30 years working with children, I sincerely hope his work becomes much more available to other language speakers. The Poles have been very fortunate.
Thanks as always, and it has long struck me as odd how some children's books seem to happily travel the world, but others, especially from more insular countries such as Poland and Eastern Europe don't seem to make it onto the global stage. Seems to me that Szancer's work is a well hidden treasure.
He was a great part of my childhood :)
Thanks a lot for your comment. I wish he had been a part of my childhood, but I didn't even know of his existence until about 6 years ago. A true genius in my book.
I really liked his B&W work, whether in line or wash and line. Very unique and expressive work.
Hi again and thanks for another favourable comment.
I just view these videos and leave with the sobering realization I have so much to learn in life yet - your windows to art keep me humble for the rest of the day
Many thanks for your appreciative comment.
@@petebeard Many thanks for your pursuit - happy to straggle along...
Illustrating 300 books & more. That is an achievement. He had a good life w/ it all looks like. His little animals are lovely, his washes & the colors, are beautiful.
Thanks a usual for another comment. I must say he ranks very highly for me, out of all the remarkable talents I've featured so far. His version of Pinocchio leaves me speechless with admiration.
Thanks for the presentation. Many illustrations are very whimsical.
Thanks a lot for your comment - and "whimsical" really sums up the quality of his work.
A wonderful video to pass the time as Hurricane Beryl blows in.
Thanks a lot and I hope you are braced for it.
Peter, it’s amazing how Szancer does his compositions with such imagination, and the more you look at his work, the more you see his genius. Frank
Hello and thanks for the comment - and I couldn't agree more about the depth of his talent.
That's a great news, always, when the art is still published, keeping the artist alive.
Thanks to help to value their art, as always !
It's a great source of pleasure - and pride - to know that viewers such as yourself really appreciate what I'm doing with the channel.
Excellent outline Mr. Beard..JMS had such a wide range of styles and rendering techniques. Thank you.
Thanks a lot for your appreciation.
Thank you for the post. I deeply appreciate exposure to these artists.
Thanks for your comment. It's great to know viewers enjoy the content.
My goodness, I was entranced by Szancer's work. I agree, I would far rather read and enjoy his Pinocchio, as opposed to Disney's simplified version. I especially liked the illustration you used with the Cricket, Crow and Owl at Pinocchio's bedside. I love artists who have a sense of fun, and there is so much to look at in his books, which of course is the key to really good children's books: the art tells the story rather than the words.
I managed to find a copy of the Pinocchio book on line, but the prices of the mailing were extreme; some books were offered for less than 10d USA but the shipping could be up to 50D and more, trying to hide the sellers greed behind post prices!
Still, as always I learned of a new artist and broadened my knowledge base. Thank you!
Thank you…… I enjoyed reading your informative comment…… the on-going depravity of US capitalism ………..Miss Jenny
Thanks a lot for your comment and appreciation. Sadly, getting hold of some of these books can be pricey and far from easy. You would have thought a book such as Pinocchio would still be in print and available for a reasonable price. Maybe it'll get re-published.
...and thanks again to you for your support.
We Americans tend not to be impressed by anything from Poland, but Szancer appears to have been a one man Disney Studio. There is another Pole that I am deeply impressed with, a woodworker who goes by the name of Stavros Gakos. He makes some of the most beautiful planes you will ever see and then just gives the better ones away. It is too bad that the best illustratoions we in the west have now is from a rapidly fading Disney Corp.
Thanks a lot for your comment and appreciation. It seems to me that Poland, like some ther countries, tends to keep itself to itself, so the rest of the world isn't as aware as it could be of the great art the country has produced.
Thank you for introducing me to this fascinating illustrator! I especially love the pencil sketch marks in the mouse and jug image around 14 minutes in. You also did a great job pronouncing the Polish!
Many thanks for your appreciation of my efforts with this video, not least my attempts at Polish.
That you for all these splendid videos. They are a calm and life-affirming oasis in the chaotic wasteland of modern culture.
Thanks a lot for your comment, and I'm particularly pleased that this is how you view the channel.
Always wonderful to see and listen to your videos, loved the colours in the image at 14:15
Thanks a lot for your appreciation. I'd struggle to imagine how anyone could fail to be impressed with Szancer's work.
Thank you again. Lovely work.
I'm glad you think so. Thanks a lot for the comment.
Superb work. Even his earliest efforts have a wonderful energy and maturity to them. The Ali Baba illustrations sparked some vague memory for me, but from where and when I can't be sure. Excellent episode!
Thanks a lot for your comment and appreciation. I find Szancer's work to be among the most fascinating and imaginative I've covered so far in the series.
Thanks, another great video. I was not aware that some of the work you showed were his, despite having had many of these books in my childhood library.
Thanks a lot for your comment and appreciation. I wish they had been in my childhood library (in English, though).
That was glorious. I did not recognize any work until, Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Just wonderful.
Thanks a lot for your comment and appreciation.
Wonderful channel, my discovery this year, thank you for your work! Greetings from Poland!
Hello and welcome to the channel. And many thanks for your appreciation of my tribute to the genius of Jan Marcin Szancer.
@@petebeard I also recently created illustrations for my book, and your channel is a great inspiration for every illustrator! 💞
A fine and versatile creator with a truly remarkable talent for being both here and 'there' (whether fairyland or the past) simultaneously! He has seamlessly blended the appeal of that long-ago with the visual language of now and influences of (or callouts to) many modern artists, even Chagall!
Thanks for the comment, and I must say that of all the illustrators I;ve covered so far Szancer is one of the most fascinating and visually delightful.
Pete, another cracking primer of the (generally) overlooked and neglected artists whom I suspect have influenced our lives to one degree or another - cheers! (Nigel).
Thanks as always for your appreciation of my effortts and Szancer's remarkable work.
Art and pharmacy...history and fine arts WW2.....he got there In the end....thanks for sharing ...cheers Pete....E...
Hi Eamonn... I could do with a bit of pharmacy myself at the moment. Poleaxed with a dose of covid, after 4 years of managing to avoid it.
@@petebeard...keep safe and well ,sir...plenty of fluids...
One would think that for video about art all you would need is to turn on close captioning, but then you would miss Mr Beard's wonderful speaking voice and narration. So I have to save these videos for when I can devote my full attention.
Thanks a lot for your appreciation, and I'm glad you think they are worth listening to.
I'd never heard of him, but I wish I knew more about him.
Thanks as usual for your comment. Most of what I found had to be translated from Polish - that was fun...
Completely charmed by this presentation..Robert Riggs will have his day...some day...
Thanks a lot. And I hadn't forgotten about Riggs - he's going to appear in unsung 103 when the series starts up again in a few weeks' time.
Such an appealing style 😊
Thanks a lot for your comment.
300+ books!! plus more! that is beyond impressive
The mind boggles (well, mine does).
👍Thank you!🇬🇧🇵🇹
My pleasure!
Only slightly off topic, but inspired by it … 😏
This notion of ‘Republishing’ books (May it never go out) and how the world is shifting to digital media. Which has perplexed and haunted all of my feelings about Legacy & Permanence. #PhysicalMedia lol
I still feel a future that speculative fiction finds populated with bookshelves and stacks. Yet I remain concerned about our Near Future and the loss of that glorious sound of Pages Pinched, Singled & Turning to the next.
🥂 Pete … 📖
Thanks a lot for your comments and concerns about the whole notion of publication as print or digital. I suppose ultimately I'm just grateful that the material doesn't just vanish into the ether and get forgotten completely.
@@petebeard 😊 Amen … 🌅
These artist profiles are wonderful.
Why is it that books for children are usually illustrated but books for "grown ups" rarely are ? Except for " graphic novels", which, I think ,are still aimed towards younger readers.
Thanks a lot for your appreciation and comment. I think it's agreat pity that novels for adults arent illustrated any more. They used to be quite widely published, but like so much other illustration the practice has become largely abandoned.
Beautiful, Pete . So expressive. I loved especially the combination of wash and line in Szancer's later work. I'm curious: in your research, do you know how large his illustrations were? In other words, in his book illustrations, for example, did he work same size or larger? His design sense by page and double page are incredible. In my experience, it seems easier to work same size as it's easier to "feel" the design of the page (along with the text). At any rate, this video was an inspiration. Thanks again. Hope all is well, Pete. Stay cool and safe!
Hello and thanks. For me, he's one of the most fascinating subjects I've covered. And as it happens I do know the answer to your question. He worked 50% up on finished size, usually around A3 for what would be a full page image. The only illustrator I knew who worked same size was/is Tony Ross, who is pretty popular in these parts. Staying cool isn't an issue here right now as it's a far from sweltering 20 degrees. And as for safe, came back from Spain with a dose of Covid so that ship has sailed too...
@@petebeard Thanks Pete for your answer. I love Tony Ross. I believe Quentin Blake usually works same size too. Sorry about the Covid. Take care, we need you back for more history lessons!😉
Such full and dark images. Details galore! Tnx, as always.
This one is subtitled Written and ILLUSTRATED by Pete Beard?
Hi Mike, Thanks for the comment, and for pointing out my egotistical claim on the title page. Obviously wishful thinking on my part and I've now pointed out the error in the description box.
Hm, "The Academy Of Mr. Inkblot" certainly sounds familiar. I wonder why.
It didn't ring any bells with me.
Certainly sounds a LOT like a young, bullied wizard by the name of Harry?!
To be fair to Rowling in actuality they're nothing alike:) @@bonnierosendale
"..headmaster of an academy of wizards." The headmaster he created even has Harry Potter owlish eyeglasses. Has this book ever been discussed as a possible inspiration for J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter series?
Thanks for the comment. I haven't seen it discussed but it has to be said it's a remarkable coincidence. I was aware that the Potter books relied heavily on Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, but it looks like this might have been an influence too.
Is it fair to say that Poland has produced more than its share of brilliant illustrators?
Hello and yes it is fair. It's also fair to say the Poles don't seem all that bothered whether those outside their own country are even aware of the treasures they possess.
🌈💝
Thanks again.
Mr. Beard, I wonder, are you an illustrator yourself? Would love a Pete Beard video on the talented illustrator Pete beard 🙂
Haha! Careful what you wish for... I was an illustrator for over 4 decades but retired in 2016. There is a short and poor resolution video on the channel of some of my work up to that point, and if you search for Pete Beard Portfolio youtube will take you there.
The story about the "headmaster of a wizard's school"---an inspiration for JKR?
I hadn't heard so, but it does seem coincidental.
Gaston Bussiere
Thanks - I'll investigate.
Prosim pane, what is the piano piece in the background?
Hello, and thanks for the question. There are several different pieces used, but all come from UA-cam's audio library, filed under "classical". The first piece is titled "pirouette" but I don't know who composed it, unfortunately.
@@petebeard thank you anyway.