Welfare 1963 fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1963 - 20

This fourteenth series of charity stamps is also the fifth to deal with a German fairytale theme. According to the proposal of the head associations of the free welfare care, the Grimm house fairy tale "The wolf and the seven little goats" should supply the material for this brand row. It is therefore the case that groups of figures have to be mastered, which are based on the mysterious number 7. Last year it was the Guild of the Dwarfs who made the design work a risk, this time it is the flock of goat kids. It must be made clear what difficulties the artist faces if he is to master such a figure-rich topic in the small brand area. In order to give the fairy tale series a uniform style in the future, they have renounced the usual competition among several artists and again turned on the graphic artist Holger Börnsen, who has already proven himself. Here, too, he managed once again to let the action take place in a sequence of scenes that shows only essential moments, but neglected all superfluous accessories. As on the modern stage, the viewer is not offered a picture in the usual naturalistic sense. Only props are to be seen, which illustrate the sequence of events. Thus, the action is skillfully reduced to the essentials, and the brand image is preserved. In order to discover the certainty with which the compositional in this series is solved, it is good to follow the group of little kids on the four values. Notice how creative the artist is. When the mother leaves, only seven white heads and waving paws are visible in the semicircle of the gate. At the first appearance of the wolf, the closed defense front builds up as an oblique wedge. As soon as the monster enters the room, the panic of terror manifests itself in the diagonal juxtaposition of the four young animals, who have not yet found a protective hiding place. The other three are already gone. Eventually, all hardship dissolves in a ringing of joy. The mother as the protective element is back with her children. The youngest is only recognizable as a small white spot above the right edge of the fountain. The stamps were produced in four-color offset printing at Bundesdruckerei Berlin.