Gennady Spirin: Russia ★ Illustrator

“If you are illustrating a book about the 18th century you have to enter that century with your whole being, and I feel as if I were living in that period. I try to study everything: the life inside the house, the dishes that people use.”

Gennady Spirin

Gennady Spirin was born in the industrial community of Orekhovo-Zuevo on December 25 (which is incredibly apt, since he looks just like Santa Claus) 1948. His eagerness and talent for drawing was already evident when he was a child; he would sketch everything he saw around him. Although his father wanted him to be a soccer player because he also showed talent in that area, his grandmother encouraged him to become an artist. When he was 10 years old, he began attending the Surikov School of Fine Arts in Moscow, paid for by his grandmother out of her pension. After graduating from this institution, Spirin attended the Moscow Stroganov University of Arts where he further developed his own artistic style. In order to avoid communist politics and to give himself full artistic freedom of imagination and expression, Spirin became an illustrator for children’s books, initially working in Moscow at the Detskaya Literatura publishing house. After his illustrations for Marissa and the Gnomes won the Golden Apple Award in 1983, Spirin received his first contract with the German publishing house Verlag J. F. Schreiber, which has spread Gennady Spirin’s work and fame throughout the world.

Spirin’s art combines the Russian art tradition, the style of medieval illuminated manuscripts, and a masterful use of watercolor. The characters in his paintings seem lifelike and evoke a connection with their audience. His illustrations are known for their rich colors and intricate details. He researches each piece he works on thoroughly, which results in images that are not only beautiful to look at, but that tell a story with historical accuracy. By throwing himself entirely into the period of time that he is drawing, Spirin reveals not only a thorough knowledge of but also a love for what he is illustrating.

Having illustrated over forty children’s books, and won more than a dozen prestigious awards, Gennady Spirin has earned a place of preeminence in the world of children’s literature. However, he is also famous in the wider world of art. His work has been exhibited in many art galleries, and his paintings are part of numerous art collections, both private and corporate, throughout the world, including Princeton University Library’s Graphic Arts Collection.