American Artist
Joan Hess Michel
March 1963
There are some children's books which are classic examples of a perfect marriage between text and illustrations. In them, the author's story and characters have been so perfectly depicted that the text and illustrations are inextricably bound together forevermore. A few well-loved examples come immediately to mine: Ernest H. Shepard's wonderful drawings of Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Christopher Robin, and all the rest who lived in the vicinity of the 100-Aker Wood; Arthur Rackham's fine illustrations for Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows; and the John Tenniel drawings for Alice in Wonderland and Alice Thorough the Looking Glass. We must add a more recent creation to the group, Hilary Knight's depiction of Eloise -- the impish mischievous hoyden who romps through the staid corridors of New York's elegant Plaza Hotel.
Eloise had existed in imaginary form in the clever mind of Kay Thompson, supper-club entertainer and sophisticated chanteuse, for many years. She was a make-believe character to whom Miss Thompson gave a voice and a personality. She amused friends by answering the telephone as Eloise and telling stories of their delightful adventures at parties. Knight met Eloise and Thompson through a mutual friend. They became interested in working out a rough dummy of the book, with Eloise as the heroine, to show publishers. (Knight warns that this is not the usual or recommended procedure if one has a book to sell.) Simon and Schuster was immediately beguiled and Eloise was born in book from in 1955. As declared on the title page, it is "A book for precocious grownups." Sales were beyond expectation, and Hilary Knight, as the illustrator, was catapulted to the peak of success. He says, "There was no real struggle for me. The success of Eloise spoiled me a little. Perhaps I had too much, too soon. My technique was not quite mature at the time of Eloise's publication. I believe that my work has improved since that initial success."
Eloise had no prototype in real life -- she just "growed," evolving slowly in Knight's work. Looking back through early Knight's sketches, one can see examples of little children who resemble Eloise as we know her. Her form was lurking in Knight's pen even then -- and when he read Kay Thompson's text, Eloise popped onto the paper, full-grown with no preliminary sketches or working models. Eloise, as Knight has drawn her, is the perfect image of a precocious little girl, naughty yet loveable, who wreaks havoc at The Plaza, using the vast hotel as a wonderful, private background. Who can resist the delightful image of Eloise doing things we have all wanted to do (yet never dared): pouring a pitcherful of water down the mail chute; ordering raisins and roast-beef from room service for her pet turtle and dog; riding the elevator as if it were her own chauffeured limousine; and attending all the fashionable wedding s a s and interested but uninvited guest.
Eloise was so successful that it was followed by three sequels: Eloise in Paris and Eloise in Moscow, both published by Simon and Schuster, and Eloise at Christmastime, published by Random House. The Paris and Moscow books were done "on location" and afforded Hilary Knight the opportunity of European trips to gather authentic background material for his illustrations. For a time, Eloise was a fad, not quite as popular as Davy Crockett, but there were Eloise rag dolls, and even a television spectacular based upon the book. Little children still ask for Eloise at the desk of The Plaza, and her portrait (done by Knight) once graced the lobby. The former management of the hotel, in a whimsical moment, actually maintained Eloise's room, furnished exactly as Knight created it in his illustrations for the book. However, the true test of Eloise's popularity, says Knight with a smile, is the fact that her name has been included in The New York Times crossword puzzle on several occasions. That's real fame!
Now, seven years after her introduction to the world, Eloise's popularity has diminished. There is still a small, steady sale of books, because Knight believes, the book has moved on to the realm of children's literature. He thinks children like the book because they enjoy seeing someone naughty, doing things for which they should be reprimanded. Now Hilary Knight would like to lessen some of Eloise's influence on his reputation. He is grateful to her, for she opened the golden door of success for him, but he feels that many people only think of his work in terms of Eloise. He has illustrated over twenty other books, both juvenile and adult; executes an annual group of greeting cards for Lilac Hedges of Litchfield, Connecticut; and does occasional magazine work. For a long time, every child her drew was an Eloise. He had to actually unlearn her form and purge her from his pen by concentrating on the drawing of great numbers of "normal" children!
Hilary Knight was born in November, 1926 on Long Island. He grew up in an artistic atmosphere, for his mother, Katherine Sturges, is a fashion and book illustrator, and his father, Clayton Knight, is also an illustrator, whose main area of work has been aviation books. Knight believes that he has inherited his decorative sense and appreciation of the romantic from his mother and technical skill from his father. His parents have been the most important influence on his work. They have helped him by providing a sympathetic milieu for his artistic development, but they never exerted any parental pressure ion his choice of a career. He never doubted what his life's work would be, for art was his main interest throughout his boyhood.
Hilary Knight's art training was taken mainly at the Art Student's League under George Grosz and the late Reginald Marsh, whose work he especially admires. The United States Navy interrupted Knight's schooling and he spent over a year and a half in the service, ironically with the title of ship's painter! After discharge from the Navy, Knight resumed his art training, studying architectural drafting (which may account for the meticulous detail in his work) at Delehanty Institute. However he found it too confining, and after enduring the work for a time, finally left. He also studied interior design and theatre design, working for one summer as assistant designer at a theater in Ogunquit, Maine. This artistic area still holds great interest for Knight, and he hopes to pursue some theatrical projects in the near future.
In 1952, Knight made his professional debut with some humorous drawings in the manner of Ronald Searle, which were published in House & Garden, Gourmet, and Mademoiselle. Even these early drawings show his sophisticated wit, his fine technique, and his attention to detail. These small beginnings were followed by the publication of Eloise, his first book, which was a tremendous success. Since 1955, Knight has concentrated on book illustration, and considers himself primarily a children's illustrator.
Knight works rapidly, with no preliminary sketches (he doesn't even keep sketchbooks), attacking the problem directly with pen and paper, doing any necessary preliminary work mentally. He believes that this method helps him to preserve spontaneity in his work. He works in pen and ink, grease pencil, tempera and watercolor. He has done a little work in oil, but finds he just hasn't enough patience for this medium. His most recent commission, handsome full-color illustrations for a new book, Beauty and the Beast, scheduled for fall (1963) publication for Macmillian, shows his wonderful sense of color, his romantic imagination, which artfully links the fantastic with the literal, and his stylized, sophisticated technique -- very different from the impish drawings for Eloise.
One of his favorites among the many books he has illustrated is Tortoise and the Turtle (text by Evelyn Gendel), published by Simon and Schuster. Here velvety black-and-white drawings, executed in grease pencil on acetate, have wonderful humorous detail. He has created a delightful world of turtles and forest creatures, demonstrating another facet of his facile pen. For this book, Knight spent several days doing on-the-spot research, observing the habits of turtles at the Bronx Zoo. Animals of all types (except reptiles) fascinate him, and he is especially attracted to the vibrant and decorative colors of birds' feathers. He is a true zoo fan. "Wherever I travel, I always make it a point to visit the local zoo. There is also a television program called Zoorama, which is one of my favorites," he says.
As well as depicting real animals and birds, Knight enjoys fabricating fanciful creatures of imagination -- hideous crawly bugs, sinuous serpents, ferocious dragons, and goose-pimple arousing monsters, all drawn with consummate skill, great attention to detail, and vibrantly colored. Knight says, "As a child, I loved to look at a set of books which belonged to my mother. They were illustrated by Edmund Dulac in a romantic, wonderful, detailed manner. I know he has influenced my style.
Hillary Knight's ABC was published in 1961 by Golden Press. The book is large in format and every illustration is in full color. Knight compiled the text for this book and created the illustrations. Using the dictionary, he made a list of unusual, interesting words for each letter of the alphabet - some words that children would know, and some words which might make them "stretch" a little. Then he proceeded to create a charming double-page spread for each letter - with every object and illustration beginning with the same letter, for example, "A is for Acrobatic Alligators in Airplanes." Each illustration is delightfully witty, wise, and full of humor. It is the sort of book which appeals to all ages and can be returned to again and again, with something new still to be seen. The Land of Mother Goose (Golden Press, 1962) is another of Knight's favorites. He admitted that it was difficult to discover a fresh approach to the familiar material, but the resultant book is visually handsome and ingeniously arranged, containing over one hundred familiar Mother Goose rhymes. He divided the material into the following categories: Kings and Queens, The Inn, Boys and Girls, Schoolhouse, Farmyard, The Village, The Sea, The Fair, The Marketplace, and Mother Goose's House. It is a masterpiece of organization that might escape the casual page-riffler. Each double-page spread continues in logical progression from page to page. For example, Mary Had A Little Lamb is one of the rhymes illustrated in the Farmyard section. The following page shows Mary and her lamb entering the Schoolhouse, which is the next category. If the book's pages were taken out of the binding and put together, they would form a long and continuous pictorial frieze.
Hilary Knight's New York studio apartment reflects his wide affection for the world of art and nature. His studio faces north, with large windows looking down upon one of Manhattan's busy avenues. His working area is compact and efficiently organized. One wall is solid with books: his vast reference library of art books and children's literature. Shelves above his drawing table contain colorful and neatly labeled boxes for art supplies. A small bulletin board holds reminders, photographs, and personal memorabilia. A rainbow array of colored inks and pencils is readily at hand. Two small rattan chairs are available for visitors. The living room adjoins the working area and is decorated in a personal, charming style. A collection of crystal prisms "because I love natural materials," adorns an end table; a bright bouquet of straw flowers serves as the unexpected perch for a whimsical bug-shaped Christmas ornament; a red raffia lobster crawls over an arrangement of pristine white seashells in a dish; a table full of lush, healthy green plants reveals his green thumb. There are French Provincial chairs, Oriental lacquer ware in bright colors, Mexican tin handcrafts, fresh red roses in a crystal vase, a leopard throw on the couch. White predominates, with clear color accents of red and gold. On the - wills hang paintings by Ann Tauxell, Robert Vickrey, and Indiana, a proponent of Pop art. One of Knight's unusual hobbies is collecting old sheet music, which he says, might be likened to stamp collecting. When asked to comment upon the work of his contemporaries, Knight admitted his admiration for the work of Ronald Searle, Garth Williams, the late Ludwig Bemelmans, and Leo Lionni, as well as the painters, Robert Vickery and Joseph Hirsch. Of the current cartoons, his favorite is B.C. by Hart because it is funny and has great simplicity.
Hilary Knight's advice to aspiring illustrators is simple: get the best possible training, with a good background in drawing, and use the best possible materials. He has no "tricks" of the trade, no special procedures. He just sits down at his drawing board and works quickly and steadily until a particular project is completed. He enjoys working in pen and ink, but has no preference in pens or nibs.
The future looks bright and busy.
Knight is considering a one-man show of his original illustrations, if he can find the proper gallery. He would like to go to England for perhaps a year, and the mysteries of the Orient also beckon. He would like to try his hand at fine jewelry design and fabric design and renew his acquaintance with the realm of theatrical designing. He is looking forward to completing his own book -- original text and illustrations -- on which he has been working intermittently for the past four years.
This is the special world of Hilary Knight -- busy, bright, and full of zest for living. His keen intelligence and perception of the warmth and humor in the world of human beings and animals give his work a special and unique flavor.
(The article contains nine illustrations by Hilary Knight from his many different works.)