Annemarie Van Haeringen: The Netherlands ★ Illustrator

Annemarie van Haeringen was born in Haarlem, in 1959. Her formal education as a teacher of drawing and handicrafts was followed by studies at the Rietveld Academy for Art, Amsterdam. Following her graduation, she formed a collective with three other illustrators, and together they established contacts with the publishing industry. She left the collective in the 1990s, having developed her own style and a stronger sense of the business side of illustration.

Van Haeringen works primarily with inks. Using pens, brushes and reeds on reed or watercolor papers, she generally moistens the area and allows the inks to spread out over a large area. The details are then added with a fine nibbed pen. The backgrounds tend to be soft, hazy washes, whilst the figures appear with mildly comical detail.

In the 1980s, many of van Haeringen’s works were illustrations of text books. Her most well-known works were the reading book Veilig Leren Lezen [Learn to Read Safely] and the illustrations for the arithmetic book Rekenen en Wiskunde [Counting and Mathematics], which resulted in her becoming known to four out five Dutch children, even if they did not read her many picture books.

The majority of van Haeringen’s books are written by others, but she has also written the texts of some of her picture books. Het begin van de zee [The Beginning of the Sea] sends the character, Kofi, who wants to paint the sea, but wonders how he can do so since he doesn’t know where it begins. So he borrows his father’s boat and sets off in search of where the sea begins. He meets many creatures who believe they know where the sea begins, but only the boat maker really knows.

In addition to making picture books and illustrating texts, van Haeringen has also made films for television (1994–2003). These films were based on the stories of Toon Tellegen. A musical was made of her picture book Kleine Ezel en jarige Jakkie [Little Donkey and Yakky, the Birthday Boy] in 2006. She has also offered international workshops in locations as varied as Abu Dhabi, Montreuil, and Beijing. A workshop with children in Menga, Surinam resulted in a collaborative picture book, Waarom Waarom [Why Why?] featuring a lively tapir.