{"id":343,"date":"2019-08-15T12:56:44","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T12:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/?p=343"},"modified":"2019-08-17T21:16:53","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T21:16:53","slug":"charles-santore-book-illustrator-peter-rabbit-wizard-of-oz-columbo-tv-guide-grimms-fairytales-aesops-fables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/charles-santore-book-illustrator-peter-rabbit-wizard-of-oz-columbo-tv-guide-grimms-fairytales-aesops-fables\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Santore (1935 \u2013 2019), illustrator of children’s books, fairy tales, poetry and history (“Columbo”, “The Wizard of Oz”, “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”, “Paul Revere’s Ride”, Grimm fairytales and Aesop’s fables)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

(quote)

\n\nCharles Santore, 84, nationally known illustrator from South Philadelphia<\/a> was born into an Italian-Irish family. He began his career in 1956 working as a freelance illustrator for local advertising agencies and publications such as the Saturday Evening Post, Life, Redbook, and the Ladies\u2019 Home Journal. Starting in 1972, he illustrated magazine covers for TV Guide. His first cover, depicting Peter Falk as the shambling TV detective, Columbo, brought him national acclaim.

\n\nIn 1986, Running Press asked Mr. Santore to illustrate Peter Rabbit & Other Cherished Stories by Beatrix Potter. Mr. Santore went to zoos to observe the animals he was to draw. The details in the drawings became part of the story\u2019s emotional resonance. \u201cIn his illustrations for children\u2019s books, I don\u2019t know a single artist that can bring you back to childhood in that way,\u201d Valerio said.

\n\nIn 1988, Mr. Santore illustrated Aesop\u2019s Fables, and in 1991 he did a revisiting of The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, both for Random House. In 2003, Mr. Santore turned his attention to colonial history by illustrating Henry Wadsworth Longfellow\u2019s Paul Revere\u2019s Ride: The Landlord\u2019s Tale. \u201cWhen he did the illustrations, he went to Lexington and Concord,\u201d Valerio said. \u201cHe wanted to see those places for real so he could make illustrations to engage his viewers.\u201d

\n\nSantore spent the better part of his professional life in a large studio above a pizza shop in Rittenhouse Square.<\/a> That\u2019s where he painted pictures for reissues of classic books like the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Rabbit, Snow White, and many, many others.

\n\nSantore could spend years on a single book, constantly revising the illustrations until they were just right. \u201cIf you\u2019re in for a penny you\u2019re in for a pound,\u201d he said in a 2015 interview. \u201cIf I\u2019m going to spend two or three years on a project, I want it to be the way it should be so I have no apologies. A book is around for along time. The worst feeling in the world is to look at a book and say, \u2018If only I had more time I could have done this better.\u201d

\n\n\u201cWhen you\u2019re working on a children\u2019s book and you get involved in the long narrative, it\u2019s more like composing a piece of music than a picture,\u201d said Santoro. \u201cYou can actually make very quiet pictures that build to a crescendo.\u201d

\n\nSantore\u2019s work has been collected by many museums including the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Last year a major retrospective of his work was exhibited at the Woodmere Museum in Chestnut Hill.

\n\nSantore grew up in a working-class Italian neighborhood in south Philadelphia,<\/a> and described himself as a tough kid who was compensating for a stutter by throwing punches, smoking at age 11, and hanging around pool halls, according to an interview in Communication Arts magazine . He drew portraits of neighborhood characters for cash, and was encouraged by teachers to focus on art. He said his world opened up when he was accepted to Philadelphia’s Museum School of Art, which is now The University of the Arts.

\n\n“Charlie Santore was an artistic treasure in the industry. He created worlds that were familiar but elevated them beyond the scope of our imagination,” said Running Press Kids creative director Frances Soo Ping Chow, who worked with Santore for over a decade.

\n\nWoodmere’s Charles Santore show is a trove of illustration, from Columbo to Cowardly Lion<\/a>\n\n(unquote)

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(quote) Charles Santore, 84, nationally known illustrator from South Philadelphia was born into an Italian-Irish family. He began his career in 1956 working as a freelance illustrator for local advertising agencies and publications such as the Saturday Evening Post, Life, Redbook, and the Ladies\u2019 Home Journal. Starting in 1972, heRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,8,9,10,12],"tags":[45,55,79,26,27,25,18,35,52,38,81],"class_list":["entry","author-wcp-art","post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-art-and-poem","category-figures-and-facts","category-life-nature-society","category-movies-books-and-entertainment","category-quotes-and-philosophy","category-us-and-world","tag-art","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-facts","tag-figures","tag-history","tag-life","tag-news","tag-people","tag-poetry","tag-quotes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}