Nans van Leeuwen

Ferdinanda Emilia 'Nans' van Leeuwen was born in Amsterdam, the daughter of Klaas van Leeuwen, a painter and teacher. She graduated from the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts) in Amsterdam in 1922.[2] She moved to Rotterdam, where she taught at a girls' school from 1922 to 1962.[2]

She began illustrating children's books in the 1920s for other authors, and she eventually began to write and illustrate her own books. She is best known as the illustrator of a series of children's books featuring a goblin named Piggelmee that were published as a form of advertising by the Van Nelle coffee company in the 1930s and 1940s.[2] The first of the Piggelmee books, Het tovervisje (Witchcraft, 1949), was based on a story by the Brothers Grimm.[3] Following this came De wonderschelp (The Wonder Shells, 1950), which was written in verse, and De Baas van Bos en Duin (The Boss of Forest and Dune, 1951).[3]

Her career spanned three decades, with her last work being published in the late 1950s.[4] Her style ranged from one that was strongly linear and akin to that of illustrators such as Maginel Wright Enright, Rie Cramer, and Mabel Betsy Hill to a softer style built on color washes.