View source for Harmsen van der Beek

{{Short description|Dutch illustrator and commercial artist}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}}

[[File:Flipje tiel museum.jpg|thumb|Flipje Museum in [[Tiel]].]]

'''Eelco Martinus ten Harmsen van der Beek''' (more commonly '''Harmsen van der Beek''' or just '''Beek'''; October 8, 1897 – July 24, 1953) was a Dutch illustrator and commercial artist. Abroad, he is best remembered for his illustration of [[Enid Blyton]]'s [[Noddy (character)|Noddy]] books.

Van der Beek  was the creator of the ''{{ill|Flipje|nl}}'' character in 1935. This was a [[comic strip]] featuring a character made of berries which was commissioned by a jam factory in [[Tiel]]. He was already well known in the Netherlands when he approached [[London]] publishers [[Sampson Low]] at the end of the 1940s. The result was the creation of the [[Noddy (character)|Noddy]] series for young children, authored by [[Enid Blyton]] - still a major property for animators half a century later. Van der Beek simply signed his work as "Beek". The conscious intention to create a Disney-style sympathetic focus character — a European [[Mickey Mouse]] — was reportedly a major factor. Beek's death in 1953 led to a few new illustrators for the Noddy books, amongst which was his assistant [[Peter Wienk]].

==Biography==
Beek's father was a pharmacist in Amsterdam. As a child, he and his brother Hein sold postcards which Beek had drawn, on the streets of Amsterdam.<ref name=wee>{{cite web |url=http://www.theweeweb.co.uk/public/author_profile.php?id=689 |title=E M ten Harmsen van der Beek biography - bibliography - books at the Wee Web |access-date=2011-10-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404124841/http://www.theweeweb.co.uk/public/author_profile.php?id=689 |archive-date=2012-04-04 }}</ref> Eelco attended the  Rijksschool voor Kunstnijverheid and the [[Rijksakademie|Rijksacademie voor Beeldende Kunsten]] in Amsterdam from 1916 to 1918 and subsequently began a career as a commercial artist, as well as an illustrator for newspapers and magazines.  One of the first books he illustrated was ''De Driewenschen'' (1920), by Jac van der Klei,<ref name=wee/> a writer of children's books and school textbooks.

In 1935, Beek started to draw the comic strip ''{{Interlanguage link multi|Flipje|nl}}'' for the jam factory "{{Interlanguage link multi|De Betuwe|nl}}". It was a metre long and was displayed on shelves in front of the jam jars in stores.<ref name=gelders>[http://www.nba.fi/tiedostot/7f389be5.pdf ]{{dead link|date=March 2012}}</ref> Beek's wife,  Freddie Langeler (1899–1948), herself an artist, wrote the rhyming text for the strip and coloured in the drawings. In 1936, a printer named De IJssel produced a cardboard theatre which could be used to display the comic strip as a [[slide show]]. It was illuminated from behind with a flashlight. It was dubbed the "Flipposcoop" (Flipposcope) and Flipje appeared in a special strip with instructions on how to assemble and load the theatre.<ref name=gelders/>

In 1953, Beek asked De Betuwe for permission to release the Flipje character in the United Kingdom. They refused and Beek severed relations with the company. He died six days later.<ref name=ned>{{cite web|author=Kees Kousemaker and the Lambiek Studio in Amsterdam, NL |url=http://lambiek.net/aanvang/harmsen.htm |title=Nederlanse Stripgeschiedenis |publisher=Lambiek.net |date= |accessdate=2012-03-09}}</ref>

Beek and Langeler had a son and a daughter, [[Fritzi Harmsen van Beek]] (1927–2009), who was a writer, poet and herself an illustrator.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://lambiek.net/artists/h/harmsen_van_beek.htm Bio at the comiclopedia]

{{ACArt}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beek, Harmsen Van Der}}
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1953 deaths]]
[[Category:Dutch comics artists]]
[[Category:Dutch illustrators]]
[[Category:Dutch children's book illustrators]]
[[Category:Artists from Amsterdam]]
[[Category:Enid Blyton illustrators]]