On the Move with Eric Carle
Planes, trains, and automobiles. Rocket ships and steamships. A horse? Of course! These are some of the ways people and animals move from place to place in Eric Carle’s picture-book illustrations. This exhibition is divided into themes of travel by land, air, and sea, and the artworks represent 15 different titles. Included are Carle’s familiar images from 10 Little Rubber Ducks to linoleum prints from The Boastful Fisherman to small collages from his early reader series of the 1980s.
This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Hsin-Yi Foundation.
What to Expect
Visitors are invited to move through the gallery along vinyl roadways, waterways, and railroad tracks on the floor. There are traffic signs and a wooden bridge that guests can cross. The 40 artworks on view are from 15 different books illustrated by Eric Carle. Several pieces are unpublished and on display for the first time. A reading area offers copies of the books represented in the exhibition.
See It First
Carle’s children’s initials adorn the bow of this sailboat while the tricolor flag of the Netherlands flies at the stern. This unpublished artwork—originally part of a mural—is on view for the first time.
Carle’s illustration is from Hans Christian Andersen’s tale “The Evil King.” After conquering the world by violence, the Evil King wants to control the sun and moon. He demands an airship be built with a hundred cannons and pulled by a thousand eagles. Carle’s imaginative vessel resembles a ship’s hull with an anchor and sails.
Carle creates his books in sequence, starting with the cover and executing the illustrations in page order. He always makes new artwork for his covers rather than copying or reproducing an interior illustration on the front of a book.
Carle illustrates the classic tale of a brave Dutch boy who saves his country from a potential flood by plugging his finger into a leaky dike. Here he shows Peter, the protagonist, on a late 19th-century bicycle also known as a penny-farthing, high wheel, or ordinary.
“The Bog King’s Daughter” is an 1858 fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen. Carle illustrates this story of an Egyptian princess who is captured by a Bog King and pulled down to his watery kingdom. Shown here at her release, the princess flies away on a winged horse.
