Alice Provensen (b. 1918) met her husband
Martin (1916-1987) in Los Angeles in 1943,
where both held coveted spots in the
burgeoning animation industry — he at
Disney, she at the rival
Walter Lantz Studio.
During the war years,
the Provensens worked
on military training
films. Then, with the
war’s end, they turned
to book illustration
and, joining forces as a
tight-knit, collaborative
team, created book
after book of rare
graphic distinction, nearly all of them for
children.
Glorious Flights, curated by Leonard
Marcus, one of the world’s leading writers
about children’s books and the people who
create them, features original
art from twenty-one books,
including
The Glorious Flight
Across the Channel with Louis
Blériot, awarded the Caldecott
Medal, and the Caldecott
Honor book
A Visit to William
Blake’s Inn.
What's pictured: (left) "Then Hush mixed yellow and red together, . . . " from
The Color Kittens, 1949, tempera and watercolor on illustration board, © Penguin Random House, LLC
The Provensens first made
their mark as the illustrators
of several Little Golden books,
including Margaret Wise
Brown’s
The Color Kittens
and larger-scale Golden Book
volumes such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s
A Child’s Garden of Verses. The couple was
known from the start for their sprightly wit
and elegant contemporary design sense.
Over the years, their work diversified as
the couple pursued their love of historical
research, world travel, and artistic self-reinvention.
No project was too big or
daunting for them. They often chose the
road less traveled by crafting intimate
sketchbook-style picture books like
The Year at Maple Hill Farm and chronicling
little-known true stories such as in
The
Glorious Flight. After Martin died, Alice
carried on, creating an astounding array of
new work, ranging from
The Buck Stops Here
to the cozily charming
A Day in the Life of
Murphy. Today, at 98, she makes her home in
San Clemente, California.
Exhibition-Related Events & Programs
Saturday, June 10; 10 am–noon
KickstART Saturday