Life and Philosophical Opinions of a Penguin.

[motodraconis]

I has a book. Illustrated by J J Grandville. (I'm a bit of a fan.)



This book was first published (in French) in 1842, these pics are from an English copy dating from 1877.


Grandville was one of the first artists to depict animals as people, and his work (published as early as 1829 using the latest technology of lithography) is said to have inspired Gustave Dore, Beatrix Potter, Arthur Rackham, Walter Crane, Edward Gorey and even Walt Disney. (I'm hoping to work some studies of Grandville into my not-phuud, hence I've been rooting his stuff out.)

Here's a few pics from the book...



No, it didn't come with a CD Rom, I put that in for scale.













A few more on flickr including one picture of humanistic insects (to warn any insectophobes out there.)

Comments

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

He's not especially well known outside of his native France, and in England, he'd only be known of by the sort of person with a particular fondness for early cartoons (like me - I was a Punch (http://www.punch.co.uk/historyofpunch.html) addict as a child.)

I've had a modern collection of his drawings since I was a teenager, but until the Magic Book Debacle of '06 (http://motodraconis.livejournal.com/115930.html) it never occurred to me that I'd ever be able to source any of his original(ish) books.

So fairly recently, it struck me that I might be able to research him as part of my not-phuud, which seemed as good an excuse as any to go on a hunt.