Étienne Delessert - Illustration History

Biography

Étienne Delessert (1941-2024) is a Swiss-born self-taught artist—an award-winning children’s writer, illustrator, publisher, and filmmaker. His imaginary creatures and landscapes have adorned books, magazine illustrations, posters, animated films, paintings and sculptures. An internationally respected artist, his work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. He is widely known for his animated series, Yok-Yok, and for his collaborations with playwright Eugene Ionesco and child psychologist, Jean Piaget. 1

Born in Lusanne, Switzerland, Delessert was raised by his stepmother, a great storyteller. His father, Ferdinand, was a minister. As a young child, Delessert developed an interest in creating his own scenarios and would amuse himself for hours imagining dialogues and situations. As his father was a minister, he was also introduced to the Old Testament at an early age and was fascinated by tales of the prophets. He was schooled in the classics—Greek, Latin, and German; and early on, when he began to read on his own, Delessert developed an interest in the fairy tales of Northern and Eastern Europe, filled with witches and monsters. 2

When Delessert was around 12 years old, he began to focus more on art and started learning about it from the posters in the streets of Switzerland. He enrolled in an internship course at the studio of a graphic artist in Lausanne, but did not pursue a formal art education. He found inspiration and knowledge from the street posters he saw and the magazine, Graphics, which published a mixture of fine art and advertising. When he was 21 years old, Delessert moved to Paris and became an art director for magazines. In the late 1960s, he co-founded the publishing house, Good Book. It was at Good Book that he collaborated the American-born graphic designer and art director, Rita Marshall, whom he married in 1985 and continued their collaboration on several picture books. 3

While he produced his own books, the first being The Endless Party (1965) about Noah’s ark, Delessert worked on more than eighty publications. He collaborated with many authors, including Eugene Ionesco and Jean Piaget, among others. He also illustrated works such as Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, Gordon Lightfoot’s The Pony Man, and Madame D’Aulnoy’s Beauty and the Beast. 4 Delessert became experienced with computerized art, though he prefers working with pen, ink, and pastel. He worked in animated feature-film production from 1973 to 1984 in Lausanne, and when his character, Yok-Yok, became the star of animated shorts. He also produced animated segments for the children’s television series, Sesame Street. 4

Delessert’s imagination creates creatures and scenes that juxtapose chaos and order, the familiar and the fantastic, the serious and the joyous. His art creates opportunities for the viewer to imagine the stories behind the scenarios he presents, thus encouraging his audience’s imagination. Delessert lives in Northwestern Connecticut with his wife, Rita. They have one son, Adrien. 5

Footnotes:

3. Ibid.

4. Delessert, Étienne. Étienne Delessert. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, Inc., 1992.

This essay was written by Phyllis Geraghty, a writer with professional experience in the public relations, education, health, and non-profit sectors.

Illustrations by Étienne Delessert

Additional Resources

Bibliography

Delessert, Étienne. Étienne Delessert. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, Inc., 1992.