Walter Trier

Trier worked between 1890 and 1951 across illustrator, painter, writer, caricaturist and draftsperson and 8 further recorded occupations. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

Walter Trier studied at Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. The recorded working language is German, Czech and English. The field of work recorded is illustration, art of drawing and young adult literature. Places of work recorded in the authority are Munich. Work by Walter Trier is recorded in the collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Born — 25 June 1890 • Birthplace — Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary • Died — 8 July 1951 • Place of death — near Collingwood, Ontario, Canada • Education — Academy of Fine Arts, Prague Academy of Fine Arts, Munich • Occupation — Illustrator

Trier was born to a middle class German-speaking Jewish family on 25 June 1890 in Prague. In 1905, Trier entered the Industrial School of Fine and Applied Arts; he later moved to the Prague Academy. In 1906, he entered the Royal Academy, Munich, where he studied under Franz Stuck and Erwin Knirr. In 1910, at age 20, Trier moved to Berlin where he spent most of his career. There he became known for his caricatures and children's book illustrations. Trier married Helene Mathews in 1913; a daughter, Margaret, was born a year later. An anti-fascist, Trier's cartoons were bitterly opposed by the Nazis. In 1936 he emigrated to London. During the Second World War, Trier helped the Ministry of Information produce anti-Nazi leaflets and political propaganda. He and his wife became British citizens in 1947, the same year that they moved to Canada to be near their daughter, who had moved to Toronto with her husband in the late thirties.

In 1934, Trier held a one-man exhibition in Prague. Trier also created various murals: in the Kabarett der Komiker at Kurfürstendamm (1929, destroyed by the Nazis in 1933), on the liner SS Bremen (1929), and for Hoffmann–La Roche (Welwyn Garden City, 1938). He also staged designs for Spielzeug (1924) and The Bartered Bride (1931). Trier held an exhibition of oils and water-colours in the University of Toronto in 1951, the year of his death. The Walter Trier Gallery at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) Devoted to the work of Walter Trier features small rotating exhibitions of the artist's watercolours, drawings, paintings and sculpture along with satirical works on paper by other artists from the AGO collection. In 1976, the AGO received a gift from the Trier-Fodor Foundation of over 1100 works by Trier and 345 folk toys. The gift was accompanied by an endowment to support the acquisition of humorous, satirical and illustrative art.

Walter Trier was born on 25 June 1890 in Prague. Trier held the nationality of Austria–Hungary. Trier was educated at Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. Trier worked as illustrator, painter, writer and caricaturist, and the authority record catalogues a further 9 occupations under the same name, among them draftsperson, humorist, graphic artist, commercial artist, advertising illustrator and editorial cartoonist. Trier was active from 1920 to 1951. Trier worked in Munich. Trier worked in German, Czech and English.

Trier wrote as well as composed, and is recorded as writer. 6 books and published texts survive in the institutional catalogues, spanning 1928 to 1949. They are Emil and the Detectives (1928), Dot and Anton (1930), The 35th of May, or Conrad's Ride to the South Seas (1931), Emil and the three twins (1934), Lottie and Lisa (1949) and The animals' conference (1949).

• Nazi-German in 22 Lessons, Broadsheet, London, 1942. Reprint: Favoritenpresse, Berlin 2022, ISBN 978-3-96849-053-3 • Brer Rabbit, Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin, Puffin, c. 1944 • Dandy in the Circus, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1950 • Dandy the Donkey, London: Nicholson & Watson, 1943 • 8192 Crazy Costumes in One Book...For Children from 5 and under to 75 and over, London: Atrium • 8192 Crazy People in One Book, London: Atrium, c. 1950 • 8192 Quite Crazy People in One Book, London: Atrium, [1949?] • 10 Little Negroes: A New Version, London: Sylvan, 1944

• Colman, Fred A. "Artisten" (1928) • Földes, Jolán, Peter verliert nicht den Kopf (translated from Hungarian by Stefan J. Klein) • Harris, Joel Chandler, Brer Rabbit • Hirschfeld, Ludwig, Wien und Budapest • Hochstetter, Gustav, Maruschka braut gelibbtes! • Kästner, Erich, Das doppelte Lottchen (Lisa and Lottie; republished as The Parent Trap in the United Kingdom and Australia) (1949) • Kästner, Erich, Der 35 Mai (The 35th of May) • Kästner, Erich, Till Eulenspiegel the Clown, Till the Jester, and Eleven Merry Pranks of Till the Jester • Kästner, Erich, Emil und die Detektive (Emil and the Detectives) • Kästner, Erich, Emil und die drei Zwillinge (Emil and the Three Twins) • Kästner, Erich, Das fliegende Klassenzimmer (The Flying Classroom) • Kästner, Erich, Des Freiherrn von Münchhausen wunderbare Reisen und Abenteuer zu Wasser und zu Lande (Baron Munchhausen) • Kästner, Erich, Der gestiefelte Kater (Puss in Boots) • Kästner, Erich, Der kleine Grenzverkehr, oder, Georg und die Zwischenfälle (A Salzburg Comedy) • Kästner, Erich, Die Konferenz der Tiere (The Animals Conference) • Kästner, Erich, Pünktchen und Anton (Annaluise and Anton) • Kästner, Erich, Das verhexte Telefon • Kipling, Rudyard, Das kommt davon • Meyer, Alfred Richard, Die Reise in die Jugend • Meyer, Wilhelm ("My"), Fridolins Harlekinder • Meyer, Wilhelm ("My"), Fridolins Zauberland • Meyer, Wilhelm ("My"), Fridolins Siebenmeilenpferd • Morgan, Diana, My Sex Right or Wrong • Nelson, Claire, The Jolly Picnic • Roda Roda, Die verfolgte Unschuld • Schloemp, Felix, Der Allotria Kientopp • Schloemp, Felix, Schabernack und Lumpenpack • Seth-Smith, David, Jolly Families • Seyffert, Oskar, Spielzeug • Twain, Mark, Die Abenteuer des Tom Sawyer • Wiseman, Herbert, Singing Together

• Clements, Warren, ed. The Many Worlds of Walter Trier: Inimitable Drawings of Baron Munchausen, Tom Sawyer, Emil, Brer Rabbit and Many, Many Others. Toronto: Nestlings Press, 2019. • Humorist Walter Trier: Selections from the Trier-Fodor Foundation Gift. The Art Gallery of Ontario, 1981. • Jesters in Earnest. London: Murray, 1944. Cartoons by Trier and four other Czechoslovak artists. • Kästner, Erich, ed. Heiteres von Walter Trier. Hanover: Fackelträger-Verl., 1959. • Lang. Lothar, ed. Walter Trier im Eulenspiegel-Verlag. [East] Berlin: Eulenspiegel-Verlag, 1971. Munich: Rogner & Bernhard, 1971. • Lang, Lothar, ed. Das grosse Trier-Buch. [East] Berlin: Eulenspiegel-Verlag, 1972; Munich and Zurich: Piper, 1974. (New editions: 1984 and 1986.) • Lilliput: Walter Trier's World. Tokyo: Pie, 2004. Presents 99 of Trier's covers for Lilliput; text in both Japanese and English. • Neuner-Warthorst, Antje. "Da bin ich wieder!": Walter Trier - die Berliner Jahre. Berlin: SMPK, 1999. • Trier, Walter. Kleines Trier-Paradies. Zurich: Sanssouci-Verlag, 1955. • Trier Panoptikum. Berlin: Eysler, 1922. • Neuner-Warthorst, Antje, Walter Trier: Politik - Kunst - Reklame, Zürich: Atrium 2006.