Safety in the Structures of Art: Bemelmans' Madeline Books

Safety in the Structures of Art: Bemeimans' Madeline Books by Jackie Eastman In his many works for both children and adults, Austrian emigrant Ludwig Bemeimans captures a zest for living and a vibrant sense of the cosmopolitan. His best known books, the five featuring the adventures of lttle redheaded Madeline, bring the culture of France and England to the English-speaking children on this side of the Atlantic. In a sophisticated Impressionistic art style reminiscent of that of Raoul Duty, Bemeimans captures famous cttyscapes and rural aspects, as well as a multitude of detaHs about the daRy Uves of Europeans. Images of the Eiffel Tower, Sacré Coeur Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, parks and gardens, sidewalk artists, outdoor cafés, vegetable stalls, and doubledecker buses bring a new world to a young child who has never traveled. Bemeimans' genius In these books les not only, however, In the multiplcny of fascinating foreign details; it Res also ki the organization which he brings to this material. By communicating dearly that his books are 'art,' he reassures the child reader that she may partldpate In wild adventures In foreign lands without experiendng any overwhelming sense of danger. Clearly, Bemeimans' impressionistic art style and rhymed poetry contribute importantly to this separation between 'real" fife and the world of 'story," Perhaps more subtly, Bemeimans uses a number of visual and verbal structures both to establish this aesthetic distance and to create an underlying sense of order. The conflicts in the Madeline books range from the ordinary to the fantastic, from the annoying to the dangerous. In the first book, Madeline, a Caidecott runner-up for 1940, the drama centers around Madeline's appendicitis attack and midnight rush to the hospital. Madeline's Rescue, the 1954 Caidecott winner, moves quickly from the crisis which inspires its title-Madeline's near drowning In the Seine River-into arguments concerning Genevieve, the dog who saved Madeline's life. In Madeline and the Bad Hat (1956), a new character, Pepito, breaks a cardinal role in the canon of childhood-kindness to anknals-and suffers disastrous consequences before learning his lesson, in Madeline and the Gypsies (1959), a friendly gypsy circus kidnaps Madeline and Pepito. In the last book, Madeline in London (1961), not only Madeline but Miss Clavel and all the girts leave Paris, flying to London to visit Pepito in his new home. The horse which they present to Pepito bolts and dashes about London with Madeline and Pepito on his back. Structures which create aesthetic distance constantly protect Bemeimans' child reader from the fear, anger, sadness, or worry which such adventures might arouse. A scene from his 1937 Newbery Honor Winner Golden Basket suggests the essential perspective of the readers of his Madeline books. Shortly after the story opens, the two main characters, Celeste and Melisande, peer out a window of the Golden Basket Hotel into the city square of Bruges, Belgium, as morning breaks on the first day of their visit. At this point, Bemeimans' text suggests the separation between the viewer and the view which so dearly Informs his Madeline books: Through this window the littie girts were looking for the first time In their Uves Into an altogether new world, with a new language, new policemen, pastry shops, and lampposts. Even the horses and dogs and clouds seemed different Only the sparrows and pigeons looked the same as they did anywhere else, The children were cold. They closed the window. (15) Bemeimans gives the reader of the Madeline books the security of distance enjoyed by Celeste and Melisande as they look into an "altogether new world," by dearly establishing that these works are "art"; they are not life itself, but a separate, well-ordered, familiar structure based on fife. First of al, as the chHd opens a Madeline book, the end papers provide a Itérai "window" into the world of 'story'-a framed picture capturing Its essence. The opening frame invites us in; the final end papers, identical In each case to the first, communicate the sense that Madeline's world continues without us. Psychologically, we may participate ki what goes on here while remaining apart; we may choose to look through the window...