Ludwig Bemelmans

Animation Story Developer, Cartoonist, Illustrator, Writer

27/04/1898

01/10/1962

Meran, South Tyrol, Austria-Hungary (now Italy)

• UPA (United Productions of America)

Biography

Ludwig Bemelmans was an American children’s writer and illustrator who published over forty books in his lifetime but was also equally appreciated for his humorous illustrated stories for adults (“Ludwig Bemelmans). He is perhaps best known for creating the Madeline series (Eastman, “A Study of the “Madeline Books,” 2), which was adapted into an animated film in 1952. He passed away on October 1st, 1962, from pancreatic cancer, but his stories are still beloved today (“Ludwig Bemelmans).

Family and early life

Bemelmans was born in Meran, South Tyrol, Austria-Hungary (now Merano, Alto Adige, Italy) on April 27th, 1898, to parents Lambert and Frances Fischer Bemelmans (Harris). His father was a painter and his mother was the daughter of a wealthy brewery owner (Harris).

Bemelmans had a rather tumultuous upbringing. It is believed that Lambert left his family for a French governess, which caused Frances to leave for Regensburg, Germany, with her two sons (Eastman, “A Multifaceted Career,” 1). Bemelmans was placed in a German boarding school, where he reportedly “failed scholastically in more than one setting” (Eastman, “A Multifaceted Career,” 2). As a result, Bemelmans was sent to live as an apprentice for an uncle who owned a chain of hotels (Harris).

At the age of 16, Bemelmans moved to New York City. His move was due to a violent altercation, in which he shot a headwaiter in the stomach, almost killing them. Bemelmans, who worked as a busboy at that time, recalled the headwaiter as “vicious.” He considered the offense a retaliatory attack after being threatened and beaten with a leather whip. Bemelmans was presented with the choice of going to reform school or America, to which he selected the latter (Eastman, “A Study of the “Madeline Books,”” 4). In America, he worked in the hotel and restaurant industry until his mid-thirties, before deciding to become an artist in 1929 (Eastman, “A Multifaceted Career,” 2).

Career outline

Bemelmans’ career had a rocky start; he decided to become an artist just as the stock market crashed in 1929. Bemelmans’ luck changed when a lithographer friend introduced him to May Massee, editor of Vikings Children’s Books, who fell in love with the Tyrolean landscapes he had painted on his apartment wall. Bemelmans was asked to create a children’s book using similar images, and so his first novel, titled Hansi, was published in 1934 (Eastman, “A Study of the “Madeline Books,” 5). He culminated the decade with the release of Madeline (1939)—the first novel in what would become his most famous series (Eastman, “A Multifaceted Career,” 3).

In the 1930s, Bemelmans also began working in theatre. He supervised preparations for costumes, animals, and scenery for the New York adaptation of Noah by André Obey (Eastman, “A Multifaceted Career,” 4). He also travelled to Hollywood in 1943, co-authoring the film Yolanda and the Thief (1945) (Eastman, “A Study of the “Madeline Books,”” 11).

He continued to capitalize on Madeline’s success by producing other adventures, such as Madeline’s Christmas (1956), and Madeline in London (1961) (Eastman, “A Multifaceted Career,” 5). In 1952, the hit series was adapted into a short animation, produced by UPA. The animation was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film in 1953, but lost to Johann Mouse, a Tom and Jerry cartoon (“The 25th Academy Awards” | 1953”).

Bemelmans experimented more with adult fiction in the later years of his career, the last of his works being On Board Noah’s Ark (1962) (“A Multifaceted Career,” 7).

Personal style

Bemelmans was “an entirely self-taught artist” (Eastman, “A Study of the “Madeline Books,”” 9) and did much of his painting in watercolours (Harris). He was known to write and draw “almost everywhere at any time,” reportedly creating Hansi on the backs of envelopes, old menus, and wrapping paper (Eastman, “A Multifaceted Career,” 8).

Madeline demonstrates Bemelmans’ token style of “very little text and a lot of picture,” showcasing his affinity toward flat and simple geometric shapes (Eastman, “The Making of a Classic Series,” 60). Bemelmans’ illustrations for Madeline were derived from the style of French painter Raoul Dufy (“The Very First ‘Madeline’ Cartoon).

Influences

Many of Bemelmans’ stories were influenced by real-life experiences. For instance, Madeline came to him on a seaside vacation in France, where he wound up in the hospital after a bicycle accident. There, he met a little girl who underwent ​​appendectomy, thus inspiring the events of the novel. Similarly, The Golden Basket (1936) was based on his honeymoon in Belgium with his second wife, Madeleine Freund (“Ludwig Bemelmans”).

He also dealt with politics in his adult novels, using The Blue Danube (1945) as an opportunity to satirize and critique the Nazi regime (“Ludwig Bemelmans”).

Honors and awards

In 1939, Bemelmans was named one of Vogue Magazine’s top ten “Stars Breaking Through.” He also won the Caldecott Honor Medal in 1940 for Madeline, the Caldecott Medal in 1954 for Madeline’s Rescue, and was inducted to the Indies Choice Picture Book Hall of Fame in 2010, as well as the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2012 (“Ludwig Bemelmans”).

Filmography

References:

Eastman, Jacqueline Fisher. “A Multifaceted Career.” Ludwig Bemelmans, Twayne Publishers, 1996, pp. 1-19, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX1597400011/G-Twayne?u=utoronto_main&sid=bookmark-G-Twayne&xid=6c416120. Accessed 19 Sept. 2025.

Eastman, Jacqueline Fisher. A Study of the “Madeline” Books of Ludwig Bemelmans, 1989, https://www.proquest.com/openview/da6679e2f51a834ce90dd239df36a4d8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y.

Eastman, Jacqueline Fisher. “Madeline and the Sequels: The Making of a Classic Series.” Ludwig Bemelmans, Twayne Publishers, 1996, pp. 50-88, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX1597400013/G-Twayne?u=utoronto_main&sid=bookmark-G-Twayne&xid=6798ae5b.

Galbraith, Mary. “Primal Postcards: Madeline as a Secret Space of Ludwig Bemelman’s Childhood.” Secret Spaces of Childhood, edited by Elizabeth Goodenough, University of Michigan Press, pp. 245–252, 2003, https://doi-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.3998/

Harris, June. “Ludwig Bemelmans.” EBSCO, 2023, https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/ludwig-bemelmans.

“Ludwig Bemelmans.” Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 38, 2018, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631010744/CIC?u=utoronto_main&sid=summon&xid=6c005ac6.

Marciano, John Bemelmans. Bemelmans: The Life & Art of Madeline’s Creator. Viking Press, 1999.

“​​The 25th Academy Awards | 1953.” Oscars, https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1953. Accessed 20 September 2025.