Charles Santore, an illustrator known for his richly detailed and whimsical interpretations of classic children's books has died, his daughter said Friday.
Christina Santore said her father died Sunday after a brief illness in Philadelphia, where he was born, raised and worked. He was 84.
He spent over three decades reimagining classic children's tales like L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz," Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," Grimm fairytales and Aesop's fables.
"Charlie Santore was an artistic treasure in the industry. He created worlds that were familiar but elevated them beyond the scope of our imagination," said Running Press Kids creative director Frances Soo Ping Chow, who worked with Santore for over a decade. "Each extensively researched and composed illustration was created with an eye to detail that was uniquely his. His lighting, reminiscent of Maxfield Parrish, enveloped colorful characters with lush atmospheres to create stunningly beautiful landscapes."
Santore grew up in a working-class Italian neighborhood in south Philadelphia, and described himself as a tough kid who was compensating for a stutter by throwing punches, smoking at age 11, and hanging around pool halls, according to an interview in Communication Arts magazine . He drew portraits of neighborhood characters for cash, and was encouraged by teachers to focus on art. He said his world opened up when he was accepted to Philadelphia's Museum School of Art, which is now The University of the Arts.
Santore started off as a magazine illustrator, had a successful freelance advertising career and frequently created portraits of celebrities for TV Guide in the 1970s and 1980s. His work appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, Good Housekeeping and he even created a poster for the 1964 World's Fair.
After over 20 years doing magazine work, Running Press approached him to illustrate "The Complete Tales of Peter Rabbit and Other Stories" in the 1980's. He was hooked.
"An advertisement runs in a magazine today and someone wraps fish in it the next day," Santore told Communication Arts. "With a book, you know it's going to be around." He sometimes took years to finish paintings for books, working primarily in watercolor.
The Woodmere Art Museum hosted a retrospective of his work last year. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Society of Illustrators Award of Excellence and the Hamilton King Award.
His works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Brandywine River Museum of Art outside Philadelphia and the Free Library of Philadelphia.
"Charlie's imagination is extraordinary," said John Whalen, publisher of Cider Mill Press, who commissioned Santore to create many works and compared his talent to Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyethe. "He would take a scene and think 'How would a child see that in their head?' He helped guide them into the world of Charles Santore."
BERLIN (AP) — The German government has sharply rejected accusations by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claiming that it has been sidelining patient autonomy, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The statements made by the US Secretary of Health are completely unfounded, factually incorrect, and must be rejected,” German Health Minister Nina Warken said in a statement late Saturday.
Kennedy said in a video post earlier on Saturday that he had sent the German minister a letter based on reports coming out of Germany that the government was “limiting people’s abilities to act on their own convictions when they face medical decisions.”
The American health secretary said that “I've learned that more than a thousand German physicians and thousands of their patients now face prosecution and punishment for issuing exemptions from wearing masks or getting COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic."
Warken rejected Kennedy’s claims, saying that “during the coronavirus pandemic, there was never any obligation on the medical profession to administer COVID-19 vaccinations. Anyone who did not want to offer vaccinations for medical, ethical, or personal reasons was not liable to prosecution, nor did they have to fear sanctions.”
Kennedy did not give provide specific examples or say which reports he was referring to but added that “in my letter, I explained that Germany is targeting physicians who put their patients first and punishing citizens for making their own medical choices.”
He concluded that "the German government is now violating the sacred patient physician relationship, replacing it is a dangerous system that makes physicians enforcers of state policies.”
Kennedy said that in his letter he made clear that “Germany has the opportunity and the responsibility to correct this trajectory, to restore medical autonomy, to end politically motivated prosecutions.”
Warken pointed out that there were no professional bans or fines for not getting vaccinated.
“Criminal prosecution was only pursued in cases of fraud and document forgery, such as the issuance of false vaccination certificates or fake mask certificates," the minister said.
She also clarified that in general in Germany “patients are also free to decide which therapy they wish to undergo.”
Former German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who was in charge during the pandemic, also replied, addressing Kennedy directly on X saying that he “should take care of health problems in his own country. Short life expectancy, extreme costs, tens of thousands of drug deaths and murder victims."
“In Germany, doctors are not punished by the government for issuing false medical certificates. In our country, the courts are independent,” Lauterbach wrote.
While a majority of Germans were eager to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus during the pandemic, there were also protests by a small minority of vaccine skeptics in Germany which were sometimes supported by far-right movements.
FILE - Robert Kennedy Jr., center, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department, walks between meetings with senators on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
