Judith Kerr is a German writer and illustrator whom is currently ninety years of age and still manages to uphold that enthusiasm just like when she was a child, running up the stairs excited to carry on with her work illustrating and creating children's books in her own study at home in London. A few of the stories that she has written have been done in such a way to help children understand what she has experienced during her time in Germany.
Judith Kerr was born on 14th June 1923 in Berlin and when she was nine she had to flee from the Nazis, living the remainder of her life in Britain. She has lived a remarkable life that hasn't been easy, yet she has been able to produce a vast range of books. She has a schedule that she keeps to everyday, having breaks between her work and keeping fit by taking long strolls, enjoying the life around her. Friends and other writers have said she is a real fun person to be around especially as she's not living in the past and she is very much in the present with today's society.
Alan Yentob talks to Judith about the way she works and the space she works in, Judith expresses that she wouldn't be able to work anywhere else as this is the room she loves and is comfortable in the study in her own home. She feels she wouldn't know what would happen if she had to work anywhere else.
Here is an image of her working area;
At the moment she is working on a book that takes place in the Jungle , she is having a few challenges in drawing flowers and trees so looks at an artist called Russo for inspiration, she feels that if she thinks of Russo she will be able to do it. Another influence Judith relates to is Fantasy represented throughout a Russian/French artist called Marc Chagall, she describes his images of couples and animals flying. This theme has inspired one of Judith's books called 'My Henry' as she felt this is what the story needed.
Here are some of Chagall's work compared to the work of Judith Kerr;
 Marc Chagall Blue Circus 1950-2 Courtesy Centre Pompidou Paris |
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| Over the Town 1918 Here are some images of Kerr's Book 'My Henry'; |
I feel Judith Kerr has written this book in memory of her husband Tom whom died seven years ago.It refers to the adventures they could have together in the afterlife, relating to the women in the story envisioning her life as being lived and all this that is happening is inside her.
Furthermore Alan Yentob suggests that Judith Kerr may be a 90 year old woman on the outside, however on the inside she is still the child that she was when she was younger, as she feels that she hasn't really grown up.
Before the war in Berlin her father was a leading Jewish intellectual and her mother a composer. Judith has written a string of books based on her own experiences throughout her life.
Judith Kerr wrote and illustrated a book called 'The tiger who came to tea', she wrote this book in her own kitchen at home. She has two children called Tacy and Matthew, she would stay at home to look after them and at times things would get very boring, so she took her children for long walks and would return home for warm tea (cups of tea). She was always worried about who might be knocking at her door, so she came up with the idea, "why not have a tiger come for tea" and this is where she came up with the story.
She told this story to her children many times so she knew it off by heart and tried to make a picture book from it in which she has succeeded.
A short synopsis of the story is:
The doorbell rings just as Sophie and her Mummy are sitting down to tea. Who could it possibly be? What they certainly don't expect to see at the door is a big furry, stripy tiger. The tiger consumes all of their food and drinks, leaving the child and her mother with nothing apart from a mess they have to clean up.
The tiger represents a stranger knocking at the door and entering a child's life in the presence of there on home.
Kerr explains how she wasn't sure whether the tiger should be wearing clothes or not, but decided it looked best without.
From Michael Rosen's (a children's writer ) point of view, he expresses that "for children aged 2-3 years why not have a tiger come for tea, as you don't know who's going to knock at the door. However if you were to look at this metaphorically, Who is this tiger? Someone that comes in and starts grabbing stuff taking all the water out of the tap, well he's a tiger what do they do? There dangerous, they eat people and Judith Kerr knew all about dangerous people grabbing things and taking people away from when she was younger from her own experiences. As she knew this could happen, as she was told when she was a young child that her father could be grabbed at any moment either by the Gestapo (official secret police of Nazi Germany) or the SS (the secret service), he was in great danger.
In Conclusion, Judith Kerr has impacted on my work in the way I have reflected in the methods she uses to create her simple , vibrant images. By using my own materials more freely, adding fragments of line and sketches throughout my images. Realizing that I don't have to outline the whole of my image, but just part of it to give my work more of an edge. I have also learnt quite a lot from Judith Kerr, exploring about her life and how she has progressed throughout her work, representing memories and events that she has experienced which she has produced throughout her images. This relates to my self - directed project on 'The Bink family' as some of the events that happen in the story link to some of my own experiences and memories from my own past.
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