Wonders Under the Feet, Mikhail Belomlinsky

I came across an image recently of a foreign vintage children's book on the blog Animalarium that caught my attention. Laura of Animalarium shows so many great images on her blog and also provides many links. This particular image was from a book called Wonders Under The Feet with artwork by Russian illustrator, Mikhail Belomlinksy. I was happy to find the link Laura provided went to a book site that had many scans of the book.


Don't forget to click the image so you can see it much larger. I find it frustrating to come across an intriguing image that has been sized too small. If we're going to look at art or design we need to be able to see it well enough to examine it and appreciate it.

Aren't these illustrations great? I really like Mikhail Belomlinsky's style. Although he has lived in New York since 1989, Belomlinsky was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. To go to his website, click here.

To go to Animalarium, click here.

To go to the link where there are more scans of this book, click here.

Wonders Under the Feet

By Gleb Gorbovsky

Illustrations by Mikhail Belomlinsky

1967

There Was An Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe...

Mother Goose, 1968, Illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa via Syd and Goose

"There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,

She had so many children she didn't know what to do,

So she gave them some broth without any bread,

Then whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed."

This poem distressed me as a child - I couldn't make any sense of it other

than the horror and injustice of children being spanked for no good reason.

It's exact meaning or intention has been lost over time as it dates back to the late 1700's. Some believe the rhyme may refer to royalty (King George II and Queen Caroline who had eight kids) or Elizabeth Vergoose of Boston who had six children of her own and 10 stepchildren (she gets my vote). 

As a mother it makes sense to me now: too many kids + mother alone = crazy. 

Disney Mother Goose via *amber e*

I had this book as a child - don't remember the exact name of it, so I'm guessing. Wish I still had it.

Vintage Jello ad via graphic-design

From A Pocketful of Posies, A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes, Fabric Relief Collage by Salley Mavor via Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Image via Artisian Landscape

Drawing by Kronheim, 1875 via Ask

This site has some information on the history of this nursery rhyme.

Fish

I am temporarily without my scanner. We changed our service provider and need to get our computer room put back together. In the meantime let me entertain you with some fish. Random? You bet. To view a post on Brian Wildsmith's Fishes from last February, click here.

To view a post I did on the Golden Treasury of Poetry illustrated by Joan Anglund Walsh, click here.

Vintage Printable

I don't think whales are considered fish, but hey, they live in the water and have tails and fins. Check this site out for vintage images.

Savlen Studios

This always happens to me when I'm searching for images, I get off the beaten track (children's books in this case) and find other images. Such was the case with this great painting by Mike Savlen.

Little Black Fish via Shahre Farang

Fish is Fish via BootsnGus