Thole Karel

1914–2000, Niederlande/Italien
Illustrator


«...An illustrator always pay attention to producing images that can be reproduced well. Moreover a ­drawing, even the most beautiful, that can’t be well reproduced, is not longer an illustration. The illustration must be printed, if it can’t be printed, it is no longer an illustration…»

Karel Thole, the second of eleven children of a middle class family, was born in Bussum, a small Dutch town near Amsterdam, on 20 April 1914. After a few years of study, he decided to follow his passion and enrolled in the Rijksmuseum art school in Amsterdam. He immediately dedicated himself to illustra­tion, publicity and decoration. In 1958, he decided to move to Italy, given that he was one of the greatest ­illustrators in Holland and the market was extremely limited, he chose Milan, because ”Rome is the city for living, if you have money, but Milan is the city if you want to work“. In Milan, he worked for the greatest Publishers, such as Rizzoli and Mondadori and it was Mondadori that asked him to illustrate science fiction books.

This task enabled him to express his own fantasies, creating works in which can be seen the influence of great masters such as Breughel, Magritte and Escher. His work was exhibited in private shows and collections in Holland, Italia, Germany, Great Britain, the USA, Canada and Australia. He also worked for publishers in America, Great Britain and especially Germany. In 1986, his work was very much slowed down by a serious eye disease which almost blinded him. He then did some exhibitions in Italy and during the 90s retired to Lake Maggiore where he died on 26 March 2000.
Obituary