Cutaway Houses In Picture Books

Cutaway illustrations are described by engineers and architects as ‘sectional axonometric’ drawings. They exist to show the viewer the inside of an object, with emphasis on its parts. In picture books for children, the cutaway illustration is quite often educational in its intent, for example to show the reader the inside of an object of building.

For example, the image below is a cutaway image of an insect nest, designed to show the viewer what it looks like on the inside — novel exposure of an otherwise secret space.

Edward Detmold illustration from 'Fabre's Book of Insects', 1921 cutaway
Edward Detmold illustration from ‘Fabre’s Book of Insects’, 1921 cutaway
Spanish Life Magazine

There was a time when cutaway illustrations were very popular for child consumption, and I guess that’s because they were so new and therefore impressive. You see them a lot in early to mid 20th century advertisements.

'Lancia Ardea' Poster by Giorgio Alisi, 1939 cutaway car
‘Lancia Ardea’ Poster by Giorgio Alisi, 1939 cutaway car
Factory cutaway illustration of an 18 size 'Veritas' 23 ruby-jewel pocket watch, displaying its astonishing intricacy, circa 1903. That year, Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company
Factory cutaway illustration of an 18 size ‘Veritas’ 23 ruby-jewel pocket watch, displaying its astonishing intricacy, circa 1903. That year, Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company
The Six Million Dollar Man The Inside Story – Electric Company Magazine (1976)

Popular computer games are all about the cutaway, normalising it, removing the ‘wow’. The Sims is all about the cutaway houses.

Sims cutaway house
from Mod The Sims

I also associate ‘cutaway’ views in games as necessary but bug-like features, for example when a character in a first person game approaches a wall, then partially enters the wall. This also happens in 3D architectural software when moving the camera about. It’s called ‘glitching through walls’. This game phenomenon is visually unappealing and I think it removes some of the romance of the cutaway house.

Though the golden age of the picture book cutaway seems to have passed (for now), it’s much easier for illustrators to create these images, even with no formal design training. A familiarity with popular 3D design software affords anyone the reference material to go to town with cutaways. But perhaps this is precisely why the cutaway is less utilised now; because it is less special? Or perhaps the proliferation of images in our culture has stripped away the feeling that we are afforded a glimpse into a secret world.

In any case, I remain in awe of a good cutaway illustration. The most simple and therefore the most suited to a retro style are these one point perspective dollhouse cutaways:

‘A Visit to William Blake’s Inn- Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travellers’ 1981 Written by Nancy Willard Illustrated by Alice & Martin Provensen
‘A Visit to William Blake’s Inn- Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travellers’ 1981 Written by Nancy Willard Illustrated by Alice & Martin Provensen
‘A Visit to William Blake’s Inn- Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travellers’ 1981 Written by Nancy Willard Illustrated by Alice & Martin Provensen

The illustration below is created in two point perspective, which lends a modern complexity.

This is a sectional axonometric comic by American cartoonist Chris Ware. Frames on a page are depicted as rooms in a brownstone building, a fusion of comic book design and architecture.

Modern software allows designers to create the ‘exploded axon‘. In these exploded diagrams, not only do we get a cutaway, detailed and 3D view, but each item is separated out. In the fascinating image below, Chris Ware has taken elements of exploded axons and applied a comic book style. These images are from a graphic novel called Building Stories (2012).

exploded axon by Chris Ware
Chris Ware

And here is a three point perspective example.

1974 printing of 1960’s book Let’s give a PARTY, illustrated by Joanne Nigro
Illustration for National Geographic (February 1969) by Davis Meltzer 'Future Moon Colony'
Illustration for National Geographic (February 1969) by Davis Meltzer ‘Future Moon Colony’

Various “Picture Book” Cutaway Houses

It’s not easy to find the original creators of the images below, but each of them might easily appear in a children’s book. Some of them might just as easily have appeared in 20th century advertisements.

Victorians loved to make miniatures, and rich houses often commissioned miniature replicas of their own homes. These now look like ‘doll houses’ though they were not used for play.

The intrigue for miniature houses has not gone away. Though they have a retro vibe — or precisely because of this — look on any craft website and you’ll soon find embroidery patterns of cutaway houses (a.k.a dollhouses).

Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem
Pauline Ellison (UK, 1946 –) for “Little Briar Rose,” Grimm’s Fairy Tales, 1981
from Richard Scarry’s Storybook Dictionary
Jim Smith from Frog Band Fanfare, 1977
Jane Werner & Cornelius De Witt. Words How They Look and What They Tell (1949)
In Fairyland The Finest of Tales by the Brothers Grimm illustrated by Hans Fischer
Gyo Fujikawa (American,1908-1998) – The Night Before Christmas, 1961
end papers
From Lucy and Tom from A to Z by Shirley Hughes cutaway house
by Blair Lent for Ernest Small’s Baba Yaga (1966)
Maurice Sendak
Paul Zelinsky - Rumpelstiltskin
Paul Zelinsky – Rumpelstiltskin
George Zacharie (1906–1985) illustration for advertisement for Northern California Electrical Bureau,  December 1948 issue of Sunset magazine
George Zacharie (1906–1985) illustration for advertisement for Northern California Electrical Bureau, December 1948 issue of Sunset magazine

THE LIVING CITY EXHIBITION

Below is a well-known image of a cutaway building. Aerial perspective is achieved by rendering the background in sepia tones, and the people outside the building as grey silhouettes. This image is my favourite cutaway illustration.

Image by Andres Marin Jarque for the Valencian Museum of Ethnology’s permanent exhibition “The Living City”. Depicts the interior of a city apartment block at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The Littles and Their Friends with illustrations by Roberta Carter Clark
Brian Paterson, cutaway caravan
Brian Paterson, cutaway caravan
George Hughes, "Early Guests" 1957
George Hughes, “Early Guests” 1957, used on the Saturday Evening Post cover November 23rd. This illustration is not ‘cutaway’ in the usual sense, but the composition intrigues.
Les Roses bleuâtres l’oubliette dans la cuisine by Edward Gorey
Arthur Rackham ~ Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen,1932 "When night was come and the shop shut up."
Arthur Rackham ~ Fairy Tales by Hans Andersen, 1932 “When night was come and the shop shut up.”

There is apparently an Inn like this the Siebel illustration below located in upstate New York. It’s called “The Bull and Garland“.

Dining Out by Frederick Siebel (1913-1991)
crosscut illustration of a futuristic highway

FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION

The Lost Art Of The Cutaway

CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)

On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.

Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:

1. Get a pet dog

2. Find a friend. Just one. Not too intense.

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