Donia Nachshen

Donia Esther Nachshen (22 January 1903 – 1987) was a Ukrainian-born British book illustrator and poster artist who is now best known for the posters she produced for the British government during World War Two.[1]

Donia Nachshen
Born
Donia Esther Nachshen

(1903-01-22)22 January 1903
Zhitomir, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Died1987 (aged 83–84)
NationalityBritish
EducationSlade School of Fine Art
Known forIllustration and poster art

Biography
Telegraph Less (1943) (Art.IWM PST 4041)

Nachshen was born in the city of Zhitomir, which was then part of Russia and is now in Ukraine. Nachshen was born into a Jewish family and after an anti-Jewish pogrom in the city in 1905, the family fled Zhitomir and eventually settled in London. Nachshen did well at school in London and enrolled in the Slade School of Art.[1] By the 1920s she had established herself as a successful book designer.[2] She illustrated translations of works by Arthur Schnitzler and the Nobel Prize winner Anatole France in a style based on Russian folk art and art deco elements.[3][4] Nachshen illustrated a version of the Jewish text the Haggadah in 1934 and also illustrated editions of works by Oscar Wilde and Samuel Butler.[5] She also produced illustrations for the Radio Times.[6]

During World War Two, Nachshen produced poster designs for a number of high-profile campaigns, notably the Make Do and Mend campaign run by the Board of Trade and also Telegraph Less for the General Post Office. She continued with her book illustration work during the War, producing designs for versions of "Diary of a Madman" by Nikolai Gogol and a 1945 collection of short stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky as well as books by Enid Blyton.[7] After the War, Nachshen lived in London and continued to illustrate Russian novels and poetry, mainly for the publishers Constable & Co and also for the Lindsay Drummond company.[1] For the Russian novels, Nachshen used scraperboard to create dramatic illustrations that resembled a style of eastern European woodcuts, while for the children's book that she illustrated she used much lighter pen drawings.[7]

Books illustrated

Books illustrated by Nachshen include,[7][2]

References
  1. Richard Slocombe (2014). British Posters of the Second World War. Imperial War Museum. ISBN 978-1-904897-92-7.
  2. Simon Houfe (1996). The Dictionary of 19th Century British Book Illustrators. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-1937.
  3. "She has taken great pains in honor of her husband's memory, who was said to loved Italian art". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 11 July 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  4. "While he was talking of every-day matters, her mind was in a reverie far away". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 11 July 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
  5. Lewis, Bex (24 January 2010). "Donia Nachshen". drbexl.co.uk. Archived from the original on 6 July 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  6. "Christmas Eve". Radio Times (Southern ed.) (429): 916. 18 December 1931. Archived from the original on 13 October 2023 – via BBC Genome Project.
  7. Alan Horne (1994). The Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-1082.
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