Rie Cramer

Born in Sukabumi in what was then the Dutch East Indies, she was as the daughter of Hendrik Cramer, a ship captain, and Elisabeth Frederica Schenk. She moved to the Netherlands with her mother and her youngest sister in 1896, where they settled in Arnhem. Stimulated by her aunt Gesine, an artist, she studied drawing in Arnhem.

In 1904, her father rejoined the family in the Netherlands, and they moved to The Hague, where Rie studied at the Royal Academy of Art from 1905 until 1907.

In 1913, she married Peter Otten, a lawyer; they divorced in 1914. In 1922 she married the actor Eduard Rutger Verkade; they divorced in 1933.[1]

Cramer is best known for her numerous illustrations for children's books, some of which she wrote, but she also illustrated adult literature including works by Shakespeare. For many years, she and Anton Pieck were the two main illustrators for Zonneschijn, a magazine that first appeared in 1924 and became the most important non-religious youth magazine of the Netherlands until it folded in 1943.[2] She also created set designs and costumes for the theater and for the Dutch pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair.[3] [4]

She began her career as an illustrator while still a student. Her early work was influenced by illustrators like Edmund Dulac, Aubrey Beardsley, and Arthur Rackham and had a distinct Art Nouveau style. From the 1920s on, her illustrations became more simplified and less lyrical. The colours as well became less nuanced and brighter under the influence of her work on stage costumes and sets. From the 1930s on, she worked less on children's books and started writing books for young adults. She also created art pottery together with her friend Fransje Carbasius, whom she had met at the academy in The Hague.[1]

During World War II, she continued working as an illustrator and theatrical designer, and she also wrote two plays using the pseudonym Marc Holman. Two of her earlier adult works were banned by the Germans because she had attacked National Socialism in them. She joined the resistance, helping fugitives, and she anonymously published anti-German verses in Het Parool, the largest underground resistance newspaper in the Netherlands. These verses were collected and published in 1945 as Verzen van verzet (Poems of Resistance).[1]

Afthe the war, her work was extensively translated into other languages, including English, German, French, and Danish. She wrote a radio play in 42 episodes in 1954, the year she left the Netherlands and settled on the Spanish island Mallorca with a few women friends. She continued producing pottery and tiles, and she wrote three books about the island. In 1971, due to failing health, she had to return to the Netherlands, where she died in 1977. Her work is still being reprinted.[1]

Together with Henriette Willebeek le Mair and Nelly Bodenheim, Cramer is considered the most important of the Dutch women illustrators of children's books between the two world wars. Despite her success, she was the least favored by the critics because her style was rather static and sweet.[3] When Dutch writer Annie M. G. Schmidt recalled the books of her youth, she wrote: "The illustrators of my youth were Rie Cramer and Daan Hoeksema. They poisoned fairy tales, youth corners and children's magazines.... They gave no air, neither smelled nor scented, and they left open no doors, simply shut off every way out."[5] Whatever they cared for her work or not, most critics agree that her illustrations were among the iconic and defining ones for the period.[6]

• Bibliography at the Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren
• Rie Cramer at Library of Congress Authorities, with 10 catalogue records