March 30, 2010

Inside the world of Curious George

A new exhibition looks at the perennially popular children's character and the lives of the two refugees from Nazism who created him

Curious George: Curious George — Curious George Saves the Day: The Art of Margret and HA Rey is running until August at the Jewish Museum in New York. The impishly inquisitive monkey is the creation of illustrator HA (Hans Augusto) Rey (1898-1977) and his wife, author and artist Margret Rey (1906-1996). Shown here is HA Rey's 1939-1940 illustration for 'This is George. He lived in Africa'. Most of the illustrations and documents in the exhibition have been lent by the de Grummond children’s literature collection at the University of Southern Mississippi's McCain library and archives
Photograph: Margret and HA Rey/© 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Photograph: Margret and HA Rey/guardian.co.uk

Curious George: Curious George — Born in Hamburg, Germany to Jewish families and living in Paris from 1936 to 1940, the Reys fled the city on bicycles on 12 June, hours before the Nazis arrived, carrying their drawings, including pictures for one story about an inquisitive monkey, then named Fifi. This picture shows HA Rey's 1939-1940 illustration for 'He crawled into bed and fell asleep at once'. Their stories were usually formulated by Hans and then developed by Margret into a full plot
Photograph: Margret and HA Rey/© 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Photograph: Margret and HA Rey/guardian.co.uk

Curious George: Margret and HA Rey — The Reys in the US in the late 1940s. After the couple escaped Paris, they spent four months travelling across France, Spain, Portugal and Brazil before settling in New York in the autumn of 1940
Photograph: HA & Margret Rey papers/Southern Mississippi University's de Grummond children’s literature collection Photograph: HA & Margret Rey papers/guardian.co.uk

Curious George: Curious George — Within a month of arriving in New York, four of their manuscripts were accepted for publication by Houghton Mifflin. Here, in HA Rey's 1940 illustration for 'One day George saw a man. He had on a large yellow straw hat', George exhibits his legendary curiosity
Photograph: Margret and HA Rey/© 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Photograph: Margret and HA Rey/guardian.co.uk

Curious George: The Reys — The couple at a book signing in the US, around 1945. The Reys wrote and illustrated over 30 books, mainly for children, with seven of them starring Curious George. Today, their stories have been translated into over a dozen languages
Photograph: HA & Margret Rey papers/Southern Mississippi University's de Grummond children’s literature collection Photograph: HA & Margret Rey papers/guardian.co.uk

Curious George: Whiteback the Penguin — 'Whiteblack the Penguin has a serious talk with his friends...' This HA Rey image is taken from Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World, in which the penguin sets out in search of new adventures, drawn in late 1939-early 1940. The exhibition features almost 80 original drawings, including illustrations from Raffy and the Nine Monkeys, featuring lonely giraffe Raffy and the monkeys who become his playmates, in which Curious George makes his debut as Fifi. It is also displaying HA Rey's journal detailing their flight to safety and Margret Rey's photographs of their life in France
Photograph: Margret and HA Rey/© 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Photograph: Margret and HA Rey/guardian.co.uk

Curious George: Curious George — An unpublished HA Rey pencil drawing of Curious George from the 1950s-60s. George's adventures include going up in the air with a bunch of balloons and a kite and falling into the water while attempting to fish with a mop. Later, after the Reys arrived in the US, he lives out many American dreams, including landing an acting job in Hollywood and travelling in a spaceship
Photograph: Richard P. Goodbody Inc/HA & Margret Rey papers Photograph: Richard P. Goodbody Inc/guardian.co.uk

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