Here is more from the book "Artist and Puppet Master" Jiri Trnka. This is the end of Chapter 4.
Jiri Trnka
Chapter 4 (end)
During this period, illustration had taken third place in Trnka's activities. This is shown by the diminishing number of published books. In 1940 nine books with his illustrations were published. In 1941 there were only six. In 1942 there were five. In the last two years of the war he published only one book each year. The illustrations themselves showed progress, however, and were considerably influenced by his work in stage design and pure painting.
Again there was a paradox. In pure painting, Trnka had difficulty expressing himself freely, since he could not escape from literary themes. In illustration he began to achieve a greater purity than before, and a classical maturity. This was first apparent in his illustration to Susan Discovers the World. But it becomes more marked as the influence of his free work in oils begins to appear on his illustrations.
During this time he illustrated several books in which he gave full reign to his imagination, expressing the poetry and mystery to which children respond in reading. This is particularly true of his illustrations for Caravan by Wilhelm Hauff, and Say It with Me, a book of children's verses by Frantisek Hrubin.
These two books represented the two extremes of Trnka's work as an illustrator. Hauff's fairy stories were indented for older children. Trnka took his inspiration from the East, creating an exotic world of sultans, sheikhs, camels, jinns. Again he concentrated upon conveying the atmosphere of the story, rather than depicting any one situation. An illustration, while closely related to a given story, would evoke dream images outside its actual events, though arising from them. Each story had black and white chapter heading, which was part of the ornamentation of the initial beginning of the chapter, and the whole book had ten full page coloured illustrations. Trnka used a technique of Indian ink and water colour which he had borrowed from the painters of the Far East. His drawing was extremely fine, with bright paint. The large size of the book gave him a change to express himself without fear of the fineness of his drawing being spoilt by reproduction. It is difficult to find words for the impressive effect which he achieved by means of unusual composition, the use of colour, and the technique of drawing with a hair-thin brush.
Hrubin's book of children's rhymes, Say It with Me, was meant for children of preschool age and younger schoolchildren. Here Trnka became an equal partner of the poet, and though the first edition bore only the poet's name, all subsequent editions had Trnka's name as well, an outer confirmation of the place of the illustrations an integral part of the book, the drawings complementing the poems, and vice versa. Trnka made a coloured lithograph for each of Hrubin's verses. The intimate world of tiny creatures created by Hrubin gave infinite scope to Trnka's art, and his puppeteer's vision is strikingly exemplified. It was particularly well suited to the vision of a child, where proportions change, and conventions are broken down. Trnka's drawings were simple, the colours unexpected. Sturdy little boys, chubby-faces little girls, miniature birds and fishes, all look as though they have escaped from a puppet theatre. Two little hands are needed to hold a pencil, and a little cooking-pot is as large as one of the figures. They all look as though they have settled down for a moment on the page, but are ready to run away and turn somersaults to amuse the small readers.
TWO DAYS before the end of the Second World War Trnka's had his thirtieth birthday. What had he so far achieved? He was a well-known illustrator and stage designer. The days were over when he had had to receive his midday meal from the Bohemian Heart. He was successful, and his books which he had illustrated were selling well. His opinion was sought and valued on the subject of book illustration. He had also put his abilities as a painter to the test, and had studies the work of other artists: the art of China and Japan; Czech Gothic painting and the artists of the National Revival; Breughel, Rembrandt, Watteau and Corot; the early Italian Renaissance, and the lyricism of Botticelli.
Trnka knew, however, that all this was only a preparation for greater achievement. He felt that he had latent strength as an artist, which was still waiting for the impulse and opportunity to break through and show itself. He had not forgotten the puppets.
And epoch in Trnka's life was ending, just as an epoch in history was also coming to a close. The thunder of the Red Army guns that could be heard in the distance during the quiet of the night foretold a new era.
Trnka had no clear idea of the next step but he felt that there would be no opportunities for his creative urge. His grand dream returned: the dream that had been shattered by hard facts when he opened the Wooden Theater.
Times were different now, and nine years of work had made Trnka a different man.
