The Amazing Animals of J.J. Grandville
Ancestors of Mickey Mouse, Krazy Kat, Bugs Bunny, Pogo and all the other funny animals of the 20th century can be found in the amazing 19th-century engravings of the French caricaturist Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard, better known as J. J. Grandville.
In the 1830s Grandville worked in Paris as one of the stars of Charles Philipon’s team of artists creating political caricatures that attacked the regime of Louis-Philippe in La Silhouette and La Caricature.
Between 1840 and 1842, Grandville created more than 200 illustrations for a series of articles titled Scènes de la Vie Privée et Publique des Animaux (Translation: Scenes from the Private and Public Life of Animals). Grandville’s drawings are as anatomically precise as scientific illustrations and so elegantly rendered that they’re more than funny – they’re metaphors and parables of human experience.
Un soir, ma maitresse pria l’une des jeunes miss de chanter. by J.J. Grandville
Translation: "One night my mistress begged one of the young ladies sing"
1841, Engraving, 4 1/2 "w x 5 1/2 "h
Covers of Scènes de la Vie Privée et Publique des Animaux
Translation: "Public and Private Life of Animals, Scenes of Manners"
1844 Edition, Volume 1, 17"w x 11h "
Prologue Illustrations by J.J. Grandville
1844 Edition, Engraving, 6 "w x 8 1/2 "h
Pour payer le propriétaire, un homme très-dur, qui s’appelait M. Vautour by J.J. Grandville
Translation: "To pay the owner, a very hard man, whose name was Mr. Vulture"
1844 Edition, Engraving, 4 "w x 5 1/2 "h
Art. 215. Le mari doit prtection à sa femme; la femme obéissance à son mari.
by J.J. Grandville
Translation: "The husband owes protection to his wife, the wife obedience to her husband."
1844 Edition, Engraving, 5 "w x 6 "h
David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com
— David Donihue, GreatCaricatures.com
