Illustrator Nominee: Italy

Roberto Innocenti
Italy, Illustrator

What really interests me is to tell stories solely through images, because this allows me to achieve essentiality and eliminate all repetition. This way I can find my own rhythm and enjoy greater freedom.

- Roberto Innocenti

Roberto Innocenti was born near Florence in 1940. During World War II it was difficult to study and so he is largely self-taught. He had a flair for art and he learned to draw and master the technique of graphic work, design and printing techniques. He began to work as a cartoon artist, and then designing book and magazine covers and posters for the Tuscany region. At that time he also tried to illustrate books, but as he did not get on well with Italian publishers all his projects were to remain unrealised. During the 1980s he worked with Time Life, creating for them a series of illustrated books called The Enchanted World.

His first book, published in 1979, was 1905: Bagliori ad Oriente, an illustrated history book for all ages. When Etienne Delessert, a well-known Swiss illustrator and publisher, commissioned him to illustrate the story of Cinderella, his career as a picturebook artist began to flourish. This was published in 1990; in the same year Rosa Bianca was published, and was shortly followed by Le avventure di Pinocchio.

Innocenti mostly uses watercolour, although in L'ultima spiaggia he also employs pen and ink. This is a good example of the quirky or dark subjects that Innocenti often chooses to portray. In it, an author goes to a seaside resort, where he meets characters from different works of fiction. Rosa Bianca and La storia di Erika are both wartime stories in which Innocenti does not shirk from showing the grimmer aspects of conflict.

Although his career as an illustrator was slow to begin, Roberto Innocenti has now won international recognition and many significant awards. He lives and works in the countryside of Montespertoli with his wife and two cats.