The original drawings of legendary book illustrator and poster artist Siima Škop will be on display in the gallery of the Estonian National Museum from 11 July 2020-10 January 2021.

The exhibition features 162 works. “It opens up the fairytale worlds of Snow White, Thumbelina and the Sandman while also showcasing the utopian dream espoused by political propaganda,” explained the museum’s exhibition producer and display curator Reet Mark. “With her fairytale pictures the artist was striving to make children happy, while with the socialist realism of her posters she was striving to earn a living.”

Mark added that the artist took her preparatory work very seriously. “As well as reading history books for extra material, Škop would visit museums and rove the streets with a searching eye,” she said. “That’s how she found her prototype Snow White, for example – on a tram. Her name was Nieves Redi, from Tartu. She went into acting and became Eri Klas’ first wife.” 

In addition to the posters and illustrations, the exhibition includes a selection of the artist’s hand-drawn portraits and the Rein Raamat film The Fairytale World of Siima Škop. On sale in the museum shop is the well-known fairytale book Hea eit ja õel eit (‘The Good Sister and the Evil Sister’), which Škop illustrated in such a way that some of its pictures could be coloured in by the book’s young readers.

The exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Siima Škop forms a counterpart to the larger fairytale exhibition at the Estonian National Museum entitled ‘Once upon a Time’.