Cartoons - Book Illustrations - Advertising. A Summary by Siegfried Eckert

The caricaturist and illustrator Walter Trier has remained known until today mainly for his colourful children's book illustrations. For four generations, the charm of his drawings as well as the strong colour have been appreciated. It speaks for the quality of Walter Trier‘s book illustrations, especially the successful relation between text and picture, that the books have been appearing in almost unchanged presentation until now. However, these illustrations are only a small part of his work. What Walter Trier also painted and signed, completely forgotten for decades, has been revived in the general interest.

This can be seen by the interest shown in this homepage, the rising numbers of eager visitors to exhibitions of his work in recent years and the steadily growing press resonance in "Die Zeit", "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", "Der Tagesspiegel" and even in the "BILD"-Berlin supplement.

The homage published by Robert Gernhardt just before his death in the July 2006 issue of "Weltkunst" remains unparalleled and unforgotten: "Mrs. Lene dances with bananas. Six good reasons to love and esteem the funny artist Walter Trier".

"Der lustige Dampfer", a new release by the Cecile Dressler publishing company in autumn 2009 shows how highly topical Trier is viewed in the book market. After a good 60 years, a writer of suitable stature was found, who was able to match Trier's illustrations with brilliant verses - Harry Rowohlt, "the best-known German translator, inventor of Pooh's Corner and reading artist" - ("Die Zeit" 23.03.2005). After seeing Trier's graphic originals, both author and publishing company went to the greatest trouble and the result does full justice to this. Keeping to the picture book subject of sea dwellers, this book is a real pearl!