JANOSCH. OUR FOUNDER AND HIS WORK

Horst Eckert – alias Janosch – was born in 1931 in a village on the border between Germany and Poland.

“My father was a birdcatcher and I have to repay that debt”, says the non-conformist and libertarian author and illustrator, who reveals a sharp, critical sense of the real world in his tender and ironic animal stories. His childhood was a tough time, characterised by poverty and a lack of attention. He was taken in by an authoritarian grandmother and had to work as a blacksmith and locksmith from an early age. At the age of 22, he entered the Munich Art Academy, from which he was expelled for “lack of talent”. In 1960, he began writing children’s books, which suddenly catapulted him to success. To date, he has published more than 300 works, which have been translated into 70 languages. These include The Story of Valek the Horse, Uncle Poppoff Flies into the Trees and Oh, How Beautiful is Panama, for which he was awarded the German Prize for Children’s Literature.

He is also an author of literature and cartoons for adults, but his true passion has always been painting. He has also created an extensive body of work as a painter, with thousands of original watercolours, oil paintings and etchings.

In 1980 he settled in Tenerife, where he still lives today, in retirement, with his wife Ines. For 30 years, he lived and worked in the family home in San Miguel de Abona, in the south of Tenerife, on the estate that is now home to our Finca Tamaide regeneration project. The former studio on the estate is now the location for Canarina’s artist residencies, keeping alive the essence of the place that has hosted so many years of life and artistic creation.