{{Short description|American artist (1905–2006)}} {{Infobox person | name = Vera Bock | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1905|04|04|df=y}} | birth_place = Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire | death_date = 2006<!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD|df=y}} --> | death_place = Zurich, Switzerland | nationality = <!--Deprecated--> | other_names = | occupation = Artist | known_for = Book illustrations }} '''Vera Bock''' (4 April 1905 – 2006) was a Russian-born artist who spent most of her career in the United States. She is known for her book illustrations and for the posters she made for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression.
==Life== Vera Bock was born in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, on 4 April 1905.{{sfn|Marter|2011|p=300}} Her father was an American banker and her mother was a Russian concert pianist.{{sfn|Marter|2011|p=301}} During the Russian Revolution her family fled to the United States by way of Siberia, China and Japan.{{sfn|Vera Bock Papers}} They reached San Francisco in 1917.{{sfn|Vera Bock – Britannica}}
Bock later studied in Switzerland and England.{{sfn|Vera Bock Papers}} She was trained in painting and drawing, and spent a year in England studying woodcutting, manuscript illumination, printing and photogravure.{{sfn|Marter|2011|p=301}}
Bock may be best known for her children’s book illustrations.{{sfn|Vera Bock – Britannica}} Her first book illustrations were published in 1929 in Waldemar Bonsels’s ''The Adventures of Maya the Bee'' and Ella Young's ''The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales''. The latter book was reviewed for the Newbery Medal in 1930, and was retroactively given Honor Book status in 1938.{{sfn|Marter|2011|p=301}} The Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature at the University of Minnesota holds many of Bock's illustrations.{{sfn|A Ring and a Riddle : 50 Watts}}
[[File:WPA-Work-Pays-America-Poster.jpg|thumb|Poster by Vera Bock for the Works Progress Administration]] Bock designed posters for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression.{{sfn|Vera Bock – Britannica}} She worked for the New York City poster division from 1936 to 1939.{{sfn|A Ring and a Riddle : 50 Watts}} Bock's bold Art Deco posters advertised art exhibitions and theater performances, and encouraged activities like travel, exercise, community events, educational programs, writing letters, and saving trees.{{sfn|WPA Artist Vera Bock}} Her silkscreen posters have a distinctive appearance similar to woodblocks, dominated by strong solid forms that often show a Germanic influence. She made a series of posters, ''History of Civic Services'', which are reminiscent of the forms she often used in children's books.{{sfn|A Ring and a Riddle : 50 Watts}}
During the 1940s Bock worked as an illustrator for ''Life'' and ''Coronet''.{{sfn|A Ring and a Riddle : 50 Watts}} Her work was shown in exhibitions at the New York Public Library (1942), Art Directors Club of New York (1946), Pierpont Morgan Library (''International Exhibition of Illustrated Books'', 1946), and New York Public Library (''Ten Year's of American Illustration'', 1951).{{sfn|A Ring and a Riddle : 50 Watts}}
Bock retired to Lincolnville, Maine.{{sfn|WPA Artist Vera Bock}} She married George Kaestlin late in her life and moved to Switzerland. While living there, she worked with a non-profit restoring damaged buildings in Florence, Italy. Bock retired to Zurich, Switzerland.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}} Vera Bock Kaestlin died in 2006.{{sfn|Duxbury|2017|p=5}}
==Publications== {{refbegin}} *{{citation |others=Illustrated by Vera Bock |title=The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales |year=1929 |author=Ella Young }} *{{citation |others=Illustrated by Vera Bock |title=The Adventures of Maya the Bee |year=1929 |author=Waldemar Bonsels}} *{{citation |others=Illustrated by Vera Bock |title=Oscar Wilde fairy tales |year=1935 |author=Oscar Wilde |location=Mount Vernon, NY|publisher=Peter Pauper Press}} *{{citation |others=Illustrated by Vera Bock |title=The Oak Tree House |year=1936 |author=Katharine Gibson }} *{{citation |others=Illustrated by Vera Bock|title=The Doings of Dinkie |type=A children's tale |author=Selskar Gunn |year=1937}} *{{citation |others=Illustrated by Vera Bock |title=Little Magic Horse |year=1942}} *{{citation |others=Illustrated by Vera Bock |title=A Ring and A Riddle |author1=M. Ilin |author2=E. Segal |year=1944}} *{{citation |others=Illustrated by Vera Bock |title=Arabian Nights |year=1946 |author= Andrew Lang }} *{{citation |others=Illustrated by Vera Bock |title=Critical History of Children's Literature |year=1953}} {{refend}}
==Notes== {{notes}}{{reflist|30em}}
==Sources== {{commons category|Vera Bock}} {{refbegin}} *{{citation |url=https://50watts.com/#1489298/A-Ring-and-a-Riddle |accessdate=2020-07-26 |date=September 2010 |title=A Ring and a Riddle |work=50 Watts |ref={{harvid|A Ring and a Riddle : 50 Watts}} }} *{{citation |url=http://newdeallegacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/NNDPA-Newsletter-2017.pdf |accessdate=2021-08-06 |date=Winter 2017 |last=Duxbury |first=Kathleen |title=Reports on New/Old Calendar |publisher=National New Deal Preservation Association |journal=New Deal}} *{{citation |accessdate=26 July 2020|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-533579-8|chapter=Bock, Vera |last=Marter|first=Joan M.|title=The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sPGdBxzaWj0C&pg=PA300}} *{{citation |url=https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Vera-Bock/317740 |accessdate=2020-07-26 |title=Vera Bock |encyclopedia=Britannica Kids: Students |ref={{harvid|Vera Bock – Britannica}} }} *{{citation |url=https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/4/resources/5490 |accessdate=2020-07-26 |title=Vera Bock Papers |publisher=Elmer L. Andersen Library |location=Minneapolis |ref={{harvid|Vera Bock Papers}} }} *{{citation |url=https://www.penbaypilot.com/article/wpa-artist-vera-bock-lincolnville-artist-farnsworth/88459 |accessdate=2020-07-26 |title=WPA Artist Vera Bock, Lincolnville artist, at the Farnsworth |journal=Penobscot Bay Pilot |date=11 July 2017 |ref={{harvid|WPA Artist Vera Bock}} }} {{refend}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bock, Vera}} Category:1905 births Category:2006 deaths Category:American women illustrators Category:20th-century American women artists Category:21st-century American women Category:White Russian emigrants to the United States Category:20th-century American illustrators