Ingrid Vang Nyman

danish artist Ingrid Vang Nyman (1916-1959) illustrated all the original Pippi Longstocking books. They illustrations have become classics and are published in many countries.

Ingrid was born in 1916 in Vejen in southern Jylland, in Denmark. As a nineteen year-old she began studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, but left her studies after a couple of years. In 1942 she moved to Stockholm. She took her work as an illustrator very seriously, worked very fast and had a high level of ambition. She demanded that illustrations for children should be of the same high artistic quality as for adults.

The artistic awareness in her illustrations is tremendous, as is the technical precision. She used distinctive colour fields, carefully chosen nuances, distinct ink contours and a few impacting details to set the scene and create atmosphere. She was conversant with the latest printing techniques and took advantage of them by separating the colours herself to achieve the desired result.