Pigs In Art And Children’s Literature

Pigs are shaped like little kids. Their bodies are smaller than their heads. Pigs are supposed to be intelligent, smarter than dogs, but they’re a bit awkward. Their trotters are like little kids’ arms that don’t work very well yet.

Ian Falconer

“In the second place, I am not interested in pigs. Pigs mean less than nothing to me.”

“What do you mean, less than nothing?” replied Wilbur. “I don’t think there is any such thing as less than nothing. Nothing is absolutely the limit of nothingness. It’s the lowest you can go. It’s the end of the line. How can something be less than nothing? If there were something that was less than nothing, then nothing would not be nothing, it would be something – even though it’s just a very little bit of something. But if nothing is nothing, then nothing has nothing that is less than it is.”

E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web
Pigs without hind legs near trough, Jan Brandes, 1785
Pigs without hind legs near trough, Jan Brandes, 1785
Edmonton Journal, Alberta, December 28, 1937
The Puffin Book Of Nursery Rhymes, Iona and Peter Opie, Ill. Pauline Baynes (Penguin Books Ltd, 1963)
The Puffin Book Of Nursery Rhymes, Iona and Peter Opie, Ill. Pauline Baynes (Penguin Books Ltd, 1963) tom tom the piper’s son
Gub Gub’s Book by Hugh Lofting (Doctor Dolittle) 1930s
Merry Alphabet Victorian Children's Softcover Book McLoughlin 1888 back cover
Merry Alphabet Victorian Children’s Softcover Book McLoughlin 1888 back cover
On The Farm Picture Book pigs think apples are a treat
やせたぶた ほんだかつみ 1978 The Skinny Pig
Congratulations On The New Year German postcard
Music Round the Town edited by Max T. Krone, Irving Wolfe, Beatrice Perham Krone & Margaret Fullerton, illustrated by Val Samuelson (1963)
Porcs Pigs Zwijnen, firma Joseph Scholz, 1829 - 1880
Porcs Pigs Zwijnen, firma Joseph Scholz, 1829 – 1880
In Animalville 1939 'Salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper,' sings Patsy Pig
In Animalville 1939. Caption: ‘Salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper,’ sings Patsy Pig.
WHAT HAPPENED TO PIGGY Wonder Book by Miriam Clark Potter illustrated by Mary and Carl Hauge
OUR ANIMAL FRIENDS CHILDRENS BOOK 1956 PLATT & MUNK CO “Mother pig and her babies”.
Alexandre de Riquer, Sausage Factory of Vich Juan Torra, 1899
Alexandre de Riquer, Sausage Factory of Vich Juan Torra, 1899
‘St. Anthony the Abbot’ Illustrator unknown, 1920s
Illustration for the French magazine ′La Vie Parisienne′ by Chéri Hérouard (1881-1961)
The Muppet Movie poster

The huge advantages I can see for an illustrator turning a child character into a pig:

  • Pigs don’t need to have skin colour. Technically, any middle-class kid could see themselves in Olivia, though it would be interesting to know if black girls consider pink pigs ‘white’, or if we need a black pig to achieve the job of self-reflection. The part where Olivia goes to the beach and turns pink (from monochrome) kind of means Olivia gets coded as white, so in this particular instance, the issue of skin-colour is perhaps not avoided after all. (Black kids don’t turn pink after a day in the sun.)
  • Falconer can depict Olivia with no clothes on at all and avoid charges of inappropriate content and censoring. Yet little kids very often do prance about with no clothes on, or just a hat, and these scenes are indeed shown in this book. Another picture book (this time Australian) in which toddlers prance around naked is Rudie Nudie by Emma Quay, but in this case the sensitive areas are always discreetly covered — an amazing achievement when depicting carefree, uninhibited body language while at the same time covering the crotch.
  • We are familiar with Olivia now, so it’s hard to remember that pigs in children’s books are typically not like Olivia in personality. They tend to be Wilbur types (from Charlotte’s Web), in which they sort of know they’re human food and have this worried aura to them, or they stand in for the messy/greedy/uncouth side of little kids. Olivia doesn’t have these aspects to her character at all — she is a young fashion-designer who attempts to be graceful but is trapped inside the limitations of her pig’s (toddler’s) body. Her exuberance means she’s the opposite of lazy.

Here’s a list of fictional pigs.

PIGS ILLUSTRATED

"Pigs" by Hans Christian Andersen Illustrator Gennady Novozhilov
“Pigs” by Hans Christian Andersen Illustrator Gennady Novozhilov
Vintage postcard celebrating the New Year of 1911. Pigs and gold are symbols for wishing wealth and prosperity.
“Piglets” by Nodar Dumbadze Illustrator Vladimir Nagaev
Trade Card by Buffard, undated
pigs from a Ladybird book
pigs from a Ladybird book
pigs from a Ladybird book
pigs from a Ladybird book
From Piggly Plays Truant, 1947, illustrated by A. J. MacGregor
Aunt Pettitoes and Three Piglets, ca. 1910-1913 Beatrix Potter
An illustration for the nursery rhyme Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son. From Richard Scarry’s Best Mother Goose Ever A Giant Little Golden Book
Ron-Searle’s cover for Le pointe magazine (1970s)
Little Pig Robinson. Beatrix Potter
Garth Williams Fern with the piglet Charlotte’s Web
Garth Williams wilbur the pig
Benjamin Rabier
Zbigniew Rychlicki
Vintage lithographic postcard from 1911 drunk pigs
to market to market to buy a fat pig
Toby Twirl books was illustrated by British artist Edward Jeffrey from Durham, 1898 -1978 pig, donkey, elephant and train
Toby Twirl books was illustrated by British artist Edward Jeffrey from Durham, 1898 -1978
LEONARD LESLIE BROOKE (1862-1940) for The Three Little Pigs 1904
From Mama Lovechild’s Series Three Tiny Pigs
Work well, breeder. People will thank you Soviet poster, 1961
The Three Little Pigs 1975 illustrated by Churyo Sato
Gourmet Magazine Christmas 1941 pig's head
Gourmet Magazine Christmas 1941 pig’s head
WHAT HAPPENED TO PIGGY Wonder Book frontispiece swing

Header illustration: My ABC Book written & illustrated by Art Seiden (1953)

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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