Maria Hiszpańska-Neumann – artystka książki

The present article is concerned with the person of Maria Hiszpańska-Neumann (1917–1980) and her activities in the field of book illustrating. Although she deserved the title of a ,,book artist’’. Her body of work has never been researched into at a more scientific i.e. book knowledge angle. This is the main reasu why the present article tries to examine Maria Hiszpańska-Neumann’s works of art. Because of the fact that her illustratory heritage turns out to be very ample, the present article limits itself to her book illustrations. The main conclusion of the research is that Maria Hiszpańska-Neumann was mainly interested in the Middle Ages and that is why she most of all illustrated books on the problems of the period, including general literature of the time as well as historical books on the epoch. She created mainly wood engravings. She is renowned for illustrating works of such authors as F. Villon, G. Lorca, Z. Kossak, R. Brandstaetter. She also worked on famous poems and legend collections of the Middle Ages. For the long time she co-opereted with such publishing houses as ,,Książka i Wiedza’’, ,,Czytelnik’’, ,,Nasza Księgarnia’’, ,,PAX’’. Maria Hiszpańska-Neumann died the 12th January 1980 in Warsaw.