Wheel on the Chimney
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“One August day I saw a big white cloud of hundreds of storks alighting and other big clouds coming from right and left. Soon there were thousands of storks in the meadow. This was their annual meeting before migrating to Africa." - Tibor Gergely
Beginning with that impressive sighting, Tibor Gergely became enamored of storks.
Although he was raised in Budapest and lived the remainder of his life in Manhattan, his fascination with city scenes flourished alongside his deep-rooted love for the country and the peasant customs associated with it.
One of Gergely’s favorite folk tales was of the luck brought to a farmhouse on which storks built a nest, only to return to it year after year.
In 1954, Tibor Gergely collaborated with Margaret Wise Brown (Goodnight Moon), illustrating Wheel on the Chimney, for which Gergely received a Caldecott Honor Award.
Wheel includes brilliant and vivid watercolor drawings which display his delight in the pure decorative art of traditional folk painting. The book itself conveys a spirit of true collaboration between artist and writer.
His first illustration from Wheel on the Chimney (above) was inspired by the sight of that cloud of storks in Hungary. Interestingly, Gergely included Anna Lesznai’s family “castle” in the illustration (the yellow building on the hill in background right).
And, painting in the foreground is Anna Lesznai herself.