Beautiful Cosy Underground Scenes In Picture Books

Mole reached down a lantern from a nail on the wall and lit it, and the Rat, looking round him, saw that they were in a sort of fore-court. A garden-seat stood on one side of the door, and on the other a roller; for the Mole, who was a tidy animal when at home, could not stand having hiw ground kicked up by other animals into little runs that ended in earth heaps. On the walls hung wire baskets with ferns in them, alternating with brackets carrying plaster statuary — Garibaldi, and the infant Samuel and Queen Victoria, and other heroes of modern Italy. Down one side of the forecourt ran a skittle-alley, with benches along it and little wooden tables marked with rings that hinted at beer-mugs. In the middle was a small round pond containing goldfish and surrounded by a cockle-shell border. Out of the centre of the pond rose a fanciful erection clothed in more cockle-shells and topped by a large silvered glass ball that reflected everything all wrong and had a very pleasing effect.
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. A description of Mole’s underground home. He returns after a long absence, and after a near death experience in the Wild Wood.

Sam And Dave Dig A Hole

By the italian illustrator Antonio Larocca. 1966

Russell and Lillian Hoban, illustration from The Mole Family’s Christmas, 1969

Art by Creig Valentine Flessel (February 2, 1912 – July 17, 2008)

Now That Days Are Colder by Aileen Fisher, Designed & Illustrated by Gordon Laite, Lettering by Paul Taylor (1973)

Fritz Baumgarten (German, 1883-1966) Seven dots 1954

Anton Pieck

Fritz Baumgarten (1883-1966), illustrateur allemand. Hoppel und Poppel. Sometimes underground rooms still somehow manage to have a window with a sky view.

From the Big Goldenbook of Elves & Fairies, illustrated. by Garth Williams, 1951

Illustration by Kawakami Shiro ( 川上四郎絵) forKodomo no kuni (Children’s Land), c1920s and 30s

Yuri Vasnetsov (Russian,1900-1973) – Sweet little sleeping mouse in his underground house. Humans evolved from a mouse like creature who survived the dinosaur apocalypse due to its ability to hide out underground. This mouse is all of us.

Now That Days Are Colder by Aileen Fisher, Designed & Illustrated by Gordon Laite, Lettering by Paul Taylor (1973)

Al-Ket Wa La-Far 1928 Ahmad Najib (Arabic)-DeNoiseAI

Clement Hurd, American (1908-1988) for Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown, 1942

Ida Bohatta (1900 – 1992) Austria

Fritz Baumgarten illustrated so many underground scenes I consider him a specialist in cosy animals living underground in picture books.

Fritz Baumgarten postcard

Fritz Baumgarten underground mice

Fritz Baumgarten (1883-1966) Illustration for an Easter book by Erich Heinemann

Fritz Baumgarten, 1979. Caption reads: Milly and Larry in their snug little house.

Marco Vaccari

Anne of Green Gables illustration by Hanuol (Kim Ji Hyuck). “A Night Full of Stars” imagines a land below us equally bright and starlit as the world above.