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J. J. Grandville
L'Etoile du Berger

1849

About the Item

J. J. GRANDVILLE (1803-47). aka Jean Ignace Isidore Gerard Les Etoiles. Text by Joseph Mery (1798-1865). Engraved by Geoffroy. Paris, 1849. Steel engravings with original hand-color. Some with gold highlights, borders and letters. 7.5” to 7.75” x 9.5” to 10.5” 14 plates plus titlepage. Published posthumously, this is perhaps most desirable of the whimsically illustrated works by J. J. Grandville. Due to his untimely death on 17 March 1847, it is his last great fairy tale. “Les Fleurs Animees”, Grandville’s best-known work, is a tour de force of ladies dressed as garden flowers. In “Les Etoiles”, he follows this highly amusing format by filling the sky with images of ladies dressed as stars. A clever design, the earth beneath shows human admirers often in awe of the spectacle above. “…for too long I have kept my eyes lowered to the earth: now I want to lift them to the heavens” Grandville exclaimed to his wife on the day he began the drawings for “Les Etoiles.” The volume also includes a portrait of Grandville and an unsigned essay containing a biography of this clever French illustrator. Born in Nancy, Grandville traveled to Paris at 23 and worked as a magazine illustrator and a theatrical costume designer. It was his first volume, “Les Metamorphoses du Jour” published in 1829, that would catapult him to fame. Caricatures of everyday life portraying humans with animal heads showed his gift for satire. He also illustrated Swift’s “Gulliver” and Fontaine’s “Fables”. His great gift for imagination combined with humor, wit and expert illustrations also captured praise from the Surrealists. Sadly, his creative genius belied a very troubled mind. He died in an asylum for the insane. The thirteen star plates are powerful representations of man’s continual fascination with and dependence on the planets and stars. Whether to guide travelers or announce the arrival of morning, the stars have remained, through the centuries, a great influence on everyday life. “Les Etoiles” carries an air of wonder, mystery and sometimes danger. We see the munificence of “La Bonne Etoile” and the threat of “La Mauvaise Etoile”, a cock crowing in “L’Etoile du Matin” and bats gliding in “L’Etoile du Soir”. Each plate strives to present a visual description of its star. It is as much a tribute to Grandville’s genius as it is to the heavens.
  • Creator:
    J. J. Grandville (1803 - 1847, French)
  • Creation Year:
    1849
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 17.5 in (44.45 cm)Width: 14.5 in (36.83 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Clean, crisp image. Beautiful original colors. Framed to museum specifications using archival matting, backing, and hinging. Raw silk matting with hand-painted bevel. Glazed with ultra-violet filtering Plexiglas.
  • Gallery Location:
    Florham Park, NJ
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 2015 11.25.151stDibs: LU652688982
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