Avant-Garde in the Nursery

Polish avant-garde artist Franciszka Themerson (1907-1988) illustrated the delightful 

My First Nursery Book in 1947. Franciszka was a woman of many talents, whose 

endeavours included painting, illustration, graphic design, stage design, 

art direction, publishing, film-making and marionette theatre. 

In many of these projects she was accompanied by her husband, the writer, 

composer and film-maker Stefan Themerson, whom she married in 1931.

Visit the Themerson Archive to appreciate the many collaborative

efforts of this wonderfully creative couple.

My First Nursery Book includes four classic tales: Who Killed Cock Robin?, 

The Gingerbread Man, Three Little Pigs and The Three Bears.

It was republished by Tate in 2009.

The cover and endpapers scans come from a guest post on Curious Pages,

in which illustrator Carson Ellis presented some of the spreads from the book.