Nicholas Mordvinoff

Nicholas Mordvinoff (1911-1973) was an American artist, caricaturist, and sculptor of Russian origin. Nicholas Mordvinoff was born in St. Petersburg. In 1918, after the Revolution, the family emigrated to Paris. There Nicholas studied at the Paris University of Painting and Drawing, after graduating he published his illustrations and drawings in French publications, and in the thirties he settled on the Pacific island of Mangareva, where he lived alone for several years, devoting himself to painting and periodically exhibiting his works in Tahiti. In Tahiti, he met the writer William Stone, who invited the artist to illustrate his children’s book “Thunder Island”. Mordvinoff agreed, and then illustrated two more of Stone’s books – “Pepe Was the Saddest Bird” (1944) and “Ship of Flame” (1945).

At the end of World War II, Mordvinov returned to the United States, where he soon met the writer William Lipkind, with whom he would later collaborate for a long time. Their first book together, The Two Reds, was published in 1950. Lipkind and Mordvinov published all their books under the pseudonyms Nicholas and Will. In 1952, their book Finders Keepers won the Caldecott Medal as the best illustrated book of the year.

Mordvinov continued to illustrate books for various authors until the mid-sixties, then focused primarily on painting and engraving.

On the night of May 5, 1973, Mordvinov committed suicide in his home in Hampton, New Jersey. He was 61 years old.