Portuguese children’s literature and illustration in the 1950’s: Sophia de Mello Breyner with Sarah Affonso and Maria Keil

Abstract

This study, which is part of a wider one, focuses on Portuguese illustration for children of the 1950s, and presents one of its salient trends: the participation of painters and other artists in the visual composition of works for children. At a time when artistic creation was restricted by the dictatorial regime, some of the volumes published in Portugal revealed a keen aesthetic sensibility and, in certain cases, an original concept of books as aesthetic objects. The reflection begins with an analysis of the first editions of two classic tales by the recognized author Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (1919-2004); the A Menina do Mar (1958) and A Noite de Natal (1959). Both are still in publication in new editions and present striking visual compositions, signed respectively by two important plastic artists: Sarah Affonso (1899-1983) and Maria Keil (1914-2012). Their illustrations are testimonies to a special view of illustration and its function, and of the object-book for children.