Rolf Brandt - Woodman's Shop Window; The Story Of A Tree

Although he trained as an actor, Rolf Brandt enjoyed drawing and making collages. In his native Germany he developed an interest in Dada and Surrealism and in Bauhaus artists such as Paul Klee. He moved to London from Hamburg in the early 1930s with his brother Bill (1904–83), who became famous as a photographer.

This is one of nine illustrations that Brandt made for the children’s book The Story of a Tree by Stephen McFarlane. Charting the passage of a tree from forest to sawmill to carpenter’s workshop to shop, the images are a charming example of illustration for children at the end of the Second World War. Brandt’s interest in Surrealism is evident in some of the illustrations, especially the cover page, where the trees take on the forms of furniture and toys.

Here a small boy looks into a shop window filled with brightly painted wooden toys. The sepia tones used to paint the two conversing figures seen through the doorway on the right suggest one remove from reality.

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O120066/drawing-gouache-woodmans-shop-window-the-story/