Narbut’s Toys

Illustrations by Heorhiy Narbut for "Toys" by B. Dix (1911, Moscow)

Years ago I came across images from these two books — volumes 1 & 2 of Toys (Игрушки) — and wondered if I'd ever get to see more. Based on only a handful of works, Narbut was one of my top choices for the "Journey Round My Skull" illustration book spinoff I worked on in 2009 (abandoned but maybe I'll manage it someday). I'm excited that the books lived up to the hype I had created in my own mind, and that I'm finally able to share them. Toys was published by the legendary Joseph Knebel. A biography of Narbut from wikipedia: Heorhiy Narbut (Ukrainian: Георгій Іванович Нарбут, 1886 in Narbutivka — 1920 in Kiev) was a Ukrainian painter. He is known for creating Ukrainian coats of arms, banknotes, postage stamps, charters, and his many illustrations in books and magazines. He is also known as Georgy Narbut and George Narbut. He was a brother of a noted Russian Acmeist poet Vladimir Narbut. [...] At about age 20, Narbut settled in Saint Petersburg from 1906 to 1917. There he studied with painters Ivan Bilibin and Mstislav Dobuzhinsky. In 1909, Narbut continued some of his studies in Munich, in the school of Simon Hollósy. After his return to Saint Petersburg he joined the organization Mir iskusstva. In 1910-1912 Narbut was an illustrator of the fairy tales Hans Christian Andersen, the fables of Ivan Krylov, and folk tales. In March 1917, Narbut moved to Kiev. In September 1917, he became professor and rector of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. During this time he created his Ukrainian banknotes, postage stamps and charters for the newly created Ukrainian National Republic. Narbut also worked on the Ukrainian magazines: Nashe Mynule (Our past), Zori (Stars), and Sontse Truda (The Sun of Work) among others. He died of typhus in 1920. The scans here come from the Russian sites runivers.ru and museum-cdm. This is the first post in a new series on illustrators from Russia and Ukraine circa 1900–1917.