Engravings and book illustrations represented a substantial part of his work. At the beginning of the thirties, Théodore Strawinsky experimented with different techniques including intaglio, copper-plate, aquatint, dry point, lithography and monotype. He was always designing book covers, but in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash, illustrations provided significant work opportunities and engravings ensured the diffusion and promotion of his work; both activities gave him exposure. Portraits, nudes, and above all fairs predominated. In Paris and in the French-speaking part of Switzerland his illustrations were connected also with the theatre: Les Fourberies de Scapin (1935), Dix images du cirque (1936, dry point), and Le Cirque of C-F. Ramuz (1936, lithography). In 1943, Ramuz and Igor Stravinsky worked together on Noces et autres histoires, a collection of Russian folk poems illustrated by Théodore in a deliberately naive style, and coloured using the pochoir technique. This love of colour also characterised his illustrations for Théâtre complet of Montherlant (1950).

Philippe Kaenel