Ludwig Bemelmans
Ludwig Bemelmans was a Belgian-American author and illustrator, best known for creating the beloved children's character Madeline. Born on April 27, 1898, in Belgium, he faced a challenging childhood marked by family instability and a struggle to find academic success. After a series of apprenticeships, he moved to the United States, where he worked in the hotel industry while simultaneously pursuing his artistic ambitions. Bemelmans published his first children's book, *Hansi*, in 1934, the same year he married Madeleine Freund and had a daughter named Barbara, who inspired the Madeline series. Although *Madeline* was initially rejected by his original publisher, it went on to achieve immense popularity, leading to four sequels over the years. In addition to children's literature, Bemelmans wrote works for adults, often drawing from his own life experiences, and he also worked as a painter, primarily in watercolors. He continued to create until his death in 1962, leaving behind a legacy that resonates with readers and artists alike.
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Subject Terms
Ludwig Bemelmans
Artist
- Born: April 27, 1898
- Birthplace: Meran, Austria
- Died: October 1, 1962
- Place of death: New York, New York
Biography
Ludwig Bemelmans was born April 27, 1898, to Lambert Bemelmans and Frances Fischer Bemelmans. Lambert Bemelmans was a Belgian painter, and Frances Bemelmans was the daughter of a wealthy brewery owner. The Bemelmans’ marriage was not a happy one; accounts differ as to whether the father was “frequently absent,” or “deserted the family.” In any event, Frances Bemelmans took her two sons to Regensburg, Germany, where her family had a beer garden, and the young Bemelmans was placed in school there.
Bemelmans had problems with the strict discipline in the German school, and consequently was sent to a boarding school. He did not thrive there, either, and was sent to live as an apprentice to an uncle who owned a chain of hotels. The family hoped that he would learn a trade in the hotel business. After one incident in a hotel, the details of which are in dispute, he was shipped off to America, where his father had become a jewelry designer.
Bemelmans spent the next twenty-five years in the hotel business, taking time out to serve in the U. S. Army in 1917. While he worked, he tried to establish himself as an artist. May Massee, an editor at Viking Press, was able to interest him in writing and illustrating children’s books. His first children’s book, Hansi, was published in 1934. Also in 1934, Bemelmans married Madeleine Freund. They had one daughter, Barbara. Barbara was said to have been the inspiration for Madeline, Bemelmans’s best-known children’s picture book. Surprisingly, Madeline was turned down by Viking and was published by Simon and Schuster five years after it was written. Although the book was a huge success, Bemelmans did not follow up with more Madeline books for fourteen years. Ultimately, there were four sequels to Madeline: Madeline’s Rescue, Madeline and the Bad Hat, Madeline and the Gypsies, and Madeline in London.
Although his children’s books are the works for which he is most famous, Bemelmans also wrote a number of works for adults. Some of those works are thinly disguised autobiography. He devoted more time to his painting as he grew older and did much of his art in watercolors. He had a number of exhibitions and also wrote the script for at least one Hollywood film. The irony of the success of Madeline is that Bemelmans had difficulty getting it published because editors believed that it was “too sophisticated” for children. Viking Press, publisher of Bemelmans’ early works, bought the rights to Madeline in 1958. Ludwig Bemelmans died in New York in 1962. He was believed to be working on a sixth Madeline book at that time.