L13408

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Lot 341
  • 341

De Brunhoff, Jean

Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 GBP
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Description

  • De Brunhoff, Jean
  • "Off for the Search"
  • INK AND WATERCOLOUR DRAWING ON PAPER
170 by 230mm., ink and monochrome watercolour drawing, unsigned, marked in blue pencil noting book publication page number, printer's annotations on reverse together with remnants of labels, slight soiling with three patches in right corner

Condition

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

The caption, as published in the Daily Sketchon 24 November 1936, reads "After a pleasant journey, Babar arrived in Europe. He has just got off the train and is setting out to find an hotel. He has not brought his crown as he is travelling incognito". A coloured version appeared on page 20 of the 1940 edition.

A unique opportunity. This is the largest number of original Jean de Brunhoff illustrations ever to have been offered for sale at auction.

For fifty-nine issues, between 13 November 1936 and 22 January 1937, a London newspaper, the Daily Sketch, published an entirely new Jean de Brunhoff story entitled Babar and Father Christmas. The paper had previously commissioned Babar and His Children and a new seasonal story enabled the newspaper to run a suitably festive campaign: during the Christmas season children were invited to write to Babar (care of the Daily Sketch). Each correspondent was promised a reply.

As noted by Nicholas Fox Weber, although “confined to a monochromatic spectrum, de Brunhoff nevertheless achieved rich tonality in his illustrations for the tale” (see Weber, The Art of Babar, New York, 1989, p. 86). The artist himself would not live to make his own coloured version of the story for, less than nine months after the final part of Babar and Father Christmas was published, he died of tuberculosis at the age of 37. Writing sixty years later, Laurent de Brunhoff, takes up the story: “After my father’s death, his brother, Michel de Brunhoff… took charge of turning the text and pictures into a book, which Hachette, my father’s publisher, was eager to bring out. Someone at Hachette, a Monsieur Wagner (I remember the name because I thought it was funny) did the colour. Uncle Michel decided which drawings to enlarge and how to arrange them on the double pages. I was only fifteen at the time, but my uncle asked me to re-do the colour version of the cover. He wasn’t happy with Monsieur Wagner’s version, whose sky was an ugly blue… I was very happy to help in the production of my father’s book, which, along with his other books, has kept his radiant spirit alive long after his untimely death.”

The drawings, presented here, are the artist’s original drawings and represent de Brunhoff’s own finished artwork.

Original Jean de Brunhoff artwork is extremely rare on the market. Of the seven Babar book by Jean de Brunhoff, material relating to the first book, The Story of Babar, is in the collection of The Morgan Library, New York and material relating to the second and fifth books, The Travels of Babar and Zephir’s Holidays, is in the collection of the Bibliotheque nationale in Paris.

When these drawings were shown at the Mary Ryan Gallery in New York in 1997-98, the exhibition was reviewed by the New York Times as “highly recommended” with the reviewer noting “Babar, the world’s most famous elephant, is seen here in a full set of the original black-and-white drawings… The tale, about Christmas coming to the elephants’ country through Babar’s dogged efforts to find Santa Claus, is no less charming for its newspaper monotone…”

“The Babar books have, with Bemelmans’s Madeline and Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, become part of the common language of childhood, the library of the early mind…” (Adam Gopnik, ‘Freeing the Elephants’, within Christine Nelson, Drawing Babar, New York, 2008, pp. 1-2)