Illustrationintheworld

  Vladimir Vasilyevich Lebedev (Russian: Влади́мир Васи́льевич Ле́бедев; 26 May 1891 – 21 November 1967) was part of the Russian avant-garde: A painter, a political cartoonist and a poster artist, with an experimental style influenced by Russian folk art, lubki, futurism, constructivism, suprematism, productionism and cubism. A pioneer in the field of children's illustration, he would later acknowledge his role in inventing a new illustrative style, created in the "language of cubism." Lebedev's most important contributions to children's literature were made in the 1920s, and some of his most ground-breaking work was created in collaboration with the poet Samuil Marshak, whom Maxim Gorky called "the founder of Russia's (Soviet) children's literature." Together, they published more than a dozen picture books, on topics both fanciful: Tale About a Foolish Mouse and instructive: How a Plane Made a Plane. Raduga ("The Rainbow"), a renowne...