Bjorn Berg

About Bjorn Berg

Björn Berg (17 September 1923 to 13 July 2008) was a Swedish illustrator, painter and newspaper artist, best known for illustrating Astrid Lindgren's stories about Emil of Lönneberga, beginning with Emil i Lönneberga in 1963.

Berg was born in Unterwössen in Bavaria, the son of the Swedish portrait painter Folke Berg, and spent part of his childhood in New York, where the family lived from 1927 to 1935. He trained at the Tekniska skolan in Stockholm, at the graphic school of the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts from 1943 and, on a French state scholarship in 1947, in Paris under André Lhote and Fernand Léger. While conscripted from 1942 to 1945 he drew humorous pictures of military life, and in 1952 he joined Dagens Nyheter as a reportage artist, travelling to India and Sri Lanka for the paper. He worked with the writer Alf Henrikson for about 40 years, illustrating his verse and history books, including Svensk historia (1963).

Lindgren asked him to illustrate the first Emil book in 1962, reportedly using his son Torbjörn as a model, and he went on to draw the later Emil titles such as Nya hyss av Emil i Lönneberga (1966) and Den där Emil (1972), all published by Rabén & Sjögren. He also illustrated many of Alf Prøysen's Mrs Pepperpot stories. He received the Elsa Beskow Plaque in 1971. He exhibited at Liljevalchs and Nationalmuseum, and Nationalmuseum and Moderna museet hold his work. He died in Danderyd.

For collectors: The Swedish first editions of the Emil books, issued by Rabén & Sjögren from 1963, carry Berg's original illustrations, and his pictures remain the standard images of the character.