‘Flights Into Fantasy’ Soars At Eric Carle Museum

Amherst, Mass.

:After a triumphant debut last year at the Brandywine River Museum, "Flights Into Fantasy: The Kendra and Allan Daniel Collection" is on view at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art through October 26.

"Flights into Fantasy" comprises nearly 100 choice examples of original children's illustration art and fantasy art from distinguished illustrators such as Arthur Rackham ( Little Miss Muffet ), Ernest H. Shepard ( Winnie the Pooh ), Jean de Brunhoff ( Babar ), Jessie Wilcox Smith ( Alice in Wonderland ) and Harrison Cady ( Peter Rabbit ).

The collection has evolved over more than 20 years and focuses on watercolors from the Golden Age of Illustration (1880–1940), when book and magazine illustration was at its peak. There are iconic images from childhood most will remember from bedtime stories: Winnie the Pooh, Babar the elephant and Madeline, but its artistic sophistication, particularly in the fantasy art, is a hallmark of the collection.

Kendra Daniels likens collecting this form of art to gathering dreams. "I'm attracted to the magical side of childhood and the fanciful — it's like entering another world," she said. It all began when she was collecting antique toys early on and she came across children's books and wondered where were the original artworks for the dazzling illustrations depicted in the books. She made it her life's work — and joy — to find these gems.

American and British illustrators figure prominently in the collection but a Danish artist Kay (pronounced kigh) Nielsen is a favorite of Kendra's and is well represented. Once one comes across one of his illustrations, other examples are immediately recognizable as his alone and unforgettable. His artistic signature lies in striking compositions and his mastery of design elements coupled with Japonisme-influences (notice his use of the Hiroshige wave in nearly all his works). Nearly ten works of his were chosen for the exhibition.

The collection has a particular emphasis on fairy art including, Agnes Tait's 1919 watercolor "Come Away, Oh Human Child, to the waters and the Wild, with a Fairy Hand in Hand" and Ida Rentoul Outhwaite's "Fairies, Elves and Sprites Meet a Boy in the Woods," circa 1910.

It was in the early 1980s, painter and gallerist Kendra Daniel became interested in children's illustration art. She and her second husband Allen Daniel, a dealer in American folk art, become partners in life and soon became partners in collecting as well.

Always with an eye to connoisseurship, the couple first sought out work by American illustrators such as John Neil (who illustrated L. Frank Baum's Oz books) and the Brandywine area school made prominent by Norman Pyle and his followers, including Wilcox Smith. Their attentions soon expanded to work by British illustrators and from Europe.

"I felt bringing attention to children's illustration art was a pioneering field and I had a lot of work to do," Kendra Daniel said.

British illustrators have always been esteemed in their native country, Daniel explains. Beatrix Potter is a beloved artist and author in England. A watercolor of hers, one in a series of rabbit party guests, fetched more than $500,000 at auction at Sotheby's in London this summer.

On this side of the pond however, children's illustration art and fantasy art were not similarly valued, Daniel explains, perhaps owing to the long-held disdain some had for commercially produced works of art versus fine art.

At the time, most children's illustration art was primarily acquired by book collectors who used the original artworks to accent their collections, she said. "What I was trying to do was establish children's illustration art as valid art — art that could stand on its own regardless of what its purpose was."

Through her work, Daniel has helped propel this genre into the mainstream. Judging by the numbers that came into the Brandywine and have poured into the Eric Carle Museum since opening in July, where more than 11,000 people have visited the exhibition, Daniel has succeeded handily.

"'Flights into Fantasy,' the wonderful Daniel Collection of children's illustrations, brought a large audience to the Brandywine River Museum, an audience that discovered enormous diversity of talent, media and subject matter in art of very high quality and great imagination. For many visitors, it was a revelatory exhibition and experience," said museum director James H. Duff.

While the Eric Carle Museum is better known for picture book art and younger audiences, this exhibition is not a departure from its intended mission as one might think. The museum displays illustration that covers a broad range of accessibility.

"We are really about quality and demonstrating that great illustration deserves to be treated as seriously as any of the other arts. What Kendra and Allan Daniel have brought together is a compelling testament to this idea," said Nick Clark, founding director of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. "To be sure, we have seen more adults unaccompanied by children coming to the museum and reveling in what they see — we hear people saying, 'I need to come back and visit the exhibition again.' That is what Kendra and Allan really hope the visitor comes a way with — a renewed sense of letting oneself enter into the realm of fantasy and being transported by one's imagination."

Over the years, the couple has learned about the other's field and fine-tuned their respective collections.

"The experience that Allan and I have had collecting together has been fabulous," Kendra said, noting that the couple is usually in tune with each other but occasional disagreements over a potential acquisition serve to spark a discussion with each party forced to examine his/her reasons in-depth. "It makes it interesting…in our case, two heads are better than one. We've learned and added to one another's visions."

Interestingly, the first piece that got Allan Daniel hooked on this genre of art was when he and Kendra were visiting England and she took him into an old-fashioned English bookstore, crowded and dusty, and hanging on the wall was John Anster Fitzgerald's painting of a rabbit surrounded by fairies who were protecting it from hunters. The couple did not purchase the painting at the time and later were told it went to a collector and they would never be able to get it. Over the years, they often thought about that painting.

A few years later, the couple saw a landmark exhibition on fairy art that originated at the Royal Academy of London when it came to The Frick, which really opened Allan's eyes to the genre.

"It was a learning process. In the beginning, I didn't really have the eye or the understanding of the childhood or fantasy art as folk art is much more grounded," Allan Daniel says. He soon learned and retrained his eye to appreciate fantasy and whimsy. "It's really been a very exciting journey for me."

Back to the rabbit painting however; it was 15 years later — to the month — from when the couple had first seen it that the same image appeared in their email. The work was offered to them and though the price was substantially more than when they first saw it, they snapped it up, considering it a miracle of sorts as it had come full circle back to them.

The couple shares a home in northern New Jersey in a four-story townhouse that is well suited to displaying their collections.

Allan's folk art gets pride of place on two floors of the main living areas as the pieces command attention with their bold presence, but on the upper two floors — in hallways and intimate spaces like bedrooms — the watercolor illustrations shine.

A surprising amount of artwork is hung on the walls without seeming overwhelming — owing to the couple's designer instincts — and the placement of every artwork is given careful thought.

So, too, is framing. With Kendra's background in framing (she once owned a frame shop), the frame becomes an integral consideration in the display of the artwork and she designed most of the frames for the illustrations on display at the Carle Museum.

In recent years, the couple has slowed down in collecting, but as any collection is rarely complete, they are always on the lookout for another good piece. Recently, they purchased a Harry Clarke book illustration and are ever vigilant for just the right Kay Nielsen piece that surfaces only rarely.

Waiting for the right work is their best collecting strategy, they say. They had to wait years for a lovely Beatrix Potter image of a mouse knitting by lamplight and patience paid off in the long run. "We don't have to have something, we wait until it's something that meets both our criteria," Kendra said.

For years, she was able to collect with relative ease and at fair prices, but now the proverbial cat is out of the bag, and choice works are harder and harder to come by, and priced accordingly.

Perhaps not so surprisingly, Allan had "Rabbit Among the Fairies" displayed prominently among his folk art, instead of with the other fantasy art. It is a fitting statement of how Kendra and Allan have blended their lives and their artistic visions.

"It began with falling in love with Kendra and everything surrounding her and we embarked on this journey together — it's been a labor of love for both of us," Allan said.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Carle Museum will present a panel discussion on Saturday, October 4, at 1 pm, with renowned children's author Jane Yolen and a panel of experts as they each explore their own "flights into fantasy." The discussion is free with museum admission.

A fully illustrated catalog, co-published by both museums, accompanies the exhibition. The Carle museum is at 125 West Bay Road. For more information, www.picturebookart.org or 413-658-1100.