Eelco Martinus ten Harmsen van der Beek (more commonly Harmsen van der Beek or just Beek; October 8, 1897 – July 24, 1953) was a Dutch illustrator and commercial artist. Abroad, he is best remembered for his illustration of

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's Noddy books. Van der Beek was the creator of the ' character in 1935. This was a comic strip featuring a character made of berries which was commissioned by a jam factory in

Tiel Tiel () is a municipality and a town in the middle of the Netherlands. The town is enclosed by the Waal river and the Linge river to the South and the North, and the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal to the East. Tiel comprises the population centres Kapel- ...

. He was already well known in the Netherlands when he approached

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publishers Sampson Low at the end of the 1940s. The result was the creation of the Noddy series for young children, authored by

- still a major property for animators half a century later. Van der Beek simply signed his work as "Beek". The conscious intention to create a Disney-style sympathetic focus character — a European Mickey Mouse — was reportedly a major factor. Beek's death in 1953 led to a few new illustrators for the Noddy books, amongst which was his assistant

Peter Wienk Peter Wienk (11 September 1920 – 16 August 2010) was a Dutch illustrator and painter. Biography 1920-1950 From early childhood, Peter Wienk had been drawing and was allowed to take lessons from Miss A.C. Gijswijt, a close friend of the '' ...

Biography

Beek's father was a pharmacist in Amsterdam. As a child, he and his brother Hein sold postcards which Beek had drawn, on the streets of Amsterdam. Eelco attended the Rijksschool voor Kunstnijverheid and the Rijksacademie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam from 1916 to 1918 and subsequently began a career as a commercial artist, as well as an illustrator for newspapers and magazines. One of the first books he illustrated was ''De Driewenschen'' (1920), by Jac van der Klei, a writer of children's books and school textbooks. In 1935, Beek started to draw the comic strip ' for the jam factory "". It was a metre long and was displayed on shelves in front of the jam jars in stores.
/ref> Beek's wife, Freddie Langeler (1899–1948), herself an artist, wrote the rhyming text for the strip and coloured in the drawings. In 1936, a printer named De IJssel produced a cardboard theatre which could be used to display the comic strip as a

slide show A slide show (slideshow) is a presentation of a series of still images ( slides) on a projection screen or electronic display device, typically in a prearranged sequence. The changes may be automatic and at regular intervals or they may be manu ...

. It was illuminated from behind with a flashlight. It was dubbed the "Flipposcoop" (Flipposcope) and Flipje appeared in a special strip with instructions on how to assemble and load the theatre. In 1953, Beek asked De Betuwe for permission to release the Flipje character in the United Kingdom. They refused and Beek severed relations with the company. He died six days later. Beek and Langeler had a son and a daughter,

Fritzi Harmsen van Beek Frederike Martine ten Harmsen van der Beek (June 28, 1927 – April 4, 2009), known as Fritzi Harmsen van Beek, was a Dutch writer. The daughter of the cartoonist Harmsen van der Beek, she became an illustrator and poet, receiving significant ...

(1927–2009), who was a writer, poet and herself an illustrator.

References

External links

Bio at the comiclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beek, Harmsen Van Der 1897 births 1953 deaths Dutch comics artists Dutch illustrators Dutch children's book illustrators Artists from Amsterdam Enid Blyton illustrators