BECAUSE they can immerse themselves wholeheartedly in a make-believe world, children make fine illustrators. The fact is being handsomely proved by a traveling exhibition of children's illustrations for the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, who was born in Denmark 149 years ago last week. The show, a vast one to which 45 nations contributed, is divided into sections; this week part of it was on display at the New York Public Library, another part at the Municipal Art Gallery of Davenport, Iowa. Organized by a Danish welfare group, the exhibition is being circulated throughout the free world.

Wellspring of the show was the genius of Andersen himself. Born to a poor and slightly unbalanced cobbler, Andersen liked to dabble in art; he was pretty good at cutting out silhouettes, once designed a whole new set of shapes for gingerbread cookies. But Andersen's real gift was painting word pictures that appealed to children everywhere. Nearly all of the youthful illustrators who submitted entries in the current show were already familiar with Andersen's tales in their own languages.

The result of their work is easier to classify by age and sex than by country. Seven-year-old boys living on opposite sides of the globe are more apt to paint alike than a brother & sister a couple of years apart. The world of imagination, like the world of men, demands conscious loyalties, and all of the young exhibitors showed themselves able and loyal subjects of Andersen's fairy kingdom.

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