Babar in the Big Apple
by Beth S. Gersh-Nesic
"And visions of sugarplums danced in their heads." What visions do your sugarplum dreamers have this holiday season? May I suggest adding a little bit of Babar at the Morgan Library and Museum to their musings? This delightful exhibition (organized by Christine Nelson, Drue Heinz Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts) offers a behind-the-scenes tale about the French de Brunhoff family who created the story of a little orphaned elephant transformed by a city on the edge of the jungle and crowned king upon his homecoming. Since 1931, Babar has reigned supreme through forty books, several films and a cartoon series (1989-1991). Francis Poulenc set the first book to music for piano and voice in 1940.
Jean de Brunhoff (French, 1899-1937)
"The elephants carried Babar, Arthur, and Celeste in triumph."
Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant (The Story of Babar), 1931
Watercolor
14 1/2 x 10 3/8 in. (37 x 26.5 cm)
Gift of Laurent, Mathieu, and Thierry de Brunhoff, and purchased with the
assistance of The Florence Gould Foundation and the Acquisitions Fund, Fellows
Endowment Fund, Gordon N. Ray Fund, and Heineman Fund, 2004.
The Morgan Library & Museum
Although Jean de Brunhoff (1899-1937) has been credited as the creator and first author, in this Morgan exhibition we learn that Jean's wife Cécile (1903-2003) invented the classic heroic plot of loss and survival to amuse their children at bedtime. A mother--and not a father--killed off a single female parent straight away and imagined that acquiring nice bourgeois habits (exercise, study and good table manners) from a little Old Lady would effectively alleviate childhood trauma and loss (coupled with a snappy red roadster to chase away the blues).
For some, like Lise Malarte-Feldman and Jack Yeager, who wrote "Babar and the French Connection: Teaching the Politics of Superiority and Exclusion," published in Critical Perspectives on Postcolonial African Children's and Young Adult Literature (Meena Khorana, ed., Greenwood Press, 1998), Babar carries the taint of French colonialism. His transformation from a naked barbarian in the jungle to a three-piece suit Eurocentric urban planner runs the risk of brain-washing little minds into accepting an imperialist agenda.
For others (including myself), the invention of animals who behave like humans and interact as such with humans universalizes children's stories. From Aesop's Fables to the Berenstain Bears, animal protagonists avoid ethnic particularization, effectively fostering immediate identification. Babar and company constantly dramatize little moral lessons as they face life's challenging adversities: death (Babar's mother), poisoning (the old elephant king), fires (Cornelius), war (with the rhinoceroses), kidnapping (the adorable Wully-Wully), theft (those naughty crocodiles), and the antics of overly curious children (Babar's Cousin, that Rascal Arthur). Stressed out by fate, Babar dreams in Babar, the King that Love, Hope, Goodness, Health, Happiness, Joy, Learning, Patience, Courage, Intelligence, Work and Perseverance (all in the form of "graceful winged elephants") can chase away the demons Misfortune, Despair, Fear, Indolence, Ignorance, Laziness and Cowardice, much like Pierre-Paul Prud'hon's Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursue Crime (1808) in the Louvre. Are these appeals to our better selves truly dangerous indoctrinations?
Cécile, Jean, Laurent, and Mathieu de Brunhoff, ca. 1930
Photograph: Van Hamel Family Archives
Gift of Laurent de Brunhoff, 2004
The Morgan Library & Museum
That said, the real joy of Drawing Babar: Early Drafts and Watercolors comes from the opportunity to examine a sizable collection of preliminary drawings and manuscripts recently acquired by the Morgan Library and Museum through the good offices of its retired director, Charles F. Pierce Jr., and a number of generous donations, including that of Laurent de Brunhoff and his dealer Mary Ryan (whose Chelsea gallery augments the Morgan show). These preparatory sketches and paste-ups provide a rare glimpse of the children's book author and illustrator's working methods. Here, we discover that father and son worked differently: Jean developed the manuscript and illustrations simultaneously, sometimes deleting the explanations in favor of pictorial representation--especially emotions. Laurent drew the story first and added the words later.
Both artists owe a good deal to Henri Matisse and his fellow Fauves whose spare and precise drawing benefited from an exuberantly high-keyed color palette--bright reds, blues, greens and yellows. This principle of clear and evocative delineation, matched by flat surfaces of brilliant tones, infiltrated the mainstream during the 1920s and 1930s, evidenced by another excellent little exhibition in the neighborhood, Art Deco Design: Rhythm and Verve organized by Paula Baxter, Curator of Exhibitions and Coordinator of Educational Initiatives at the New York Public Library.
Fashion, the arts and publishing surrounded Babar's principal visionary, Jean de Brunhoff. His father Maurice de Brun[h]off founded the theatrical periodical Comoedie Illustrée in 1909. His brother Michel was named editor-in-chief of Paris Vogue in 1929, while he continued to edit Le Jardin des Modes under the direction of his brother-in-law Lucien Vogel. Vogel's own publication La Gazette du bon ton (1912-1925) appears among the numerous pochoirs (hand-painted stenciled images) on display in the Art Deco Design exhibition.
Laurent de Brunhoff (French, b. 1925)
Babar et ce coquin d'Arthur (Babar's Cousin: That Rascal Arthur), 1946
Watercolor study
10 1/2 x 7 3/4 in. (27 x 19 1/2 cm)
Gift of Laurent de Brunhoff, 2004
The Morgan Library & Museum
Jean de Brunhoff died of tuberculosis at thirty-seven, six years after he published the first Babar book in 1931. By 1937, seven stories were completed, but the last two were still not ready for publication. The eldest of his three sons, Laurent, stepped forward to help his uncle Michel color in the last two works. Laurent de Brunhoff was only twelve years old at the time.
After World War II, Laurent took up the series to continue the adventures of King Babar, Queen Celeste, their children Alexander, Flora, Pom and Isabelle, cousin Arthur, Zephir the monkey, their dear friend the Old Lady and the rest of the denizens in Celesteville. Among the most recent publications are Babar's Museum of Art (2003), Babar Comes to America (2008) and Babar's USA (2008). Long live the king!
View a selection of works from Drawing Babar: Early Drafts and Watercolors.
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Suggested Reading:
Nelson, Christine. Drawing Babar: Early Drafts and Watercolors.
New York: The Morgan Library & Museum, 2008.
This fine catalogue, by curator Christine Nelson, accompanies the Drawing Babar exhibition, and contains an essay by New Yorker contributor Adam Gopnik and a foreword by William M. Griswold, the Morgan's director.
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Drawing Babar: Early Drafts and Watercolors is on view through January 4, 2009 at the Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016 (Telephone: 1-212-685-0008; Website). The Morgan Library & Museum and the Morgan Shop are open Tuesday through Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Morgan closes at 4 p.m. on Christmas and New Year's Eve, and is closed Mondays, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. Admission is for adults is $12. Admission is $8 for Seniors (65 and over), children aged 13-16, and students with current ID. Admission is free to members and children aged 12 and under (who must be accompanied by an adult). Additionally, admission is free on Friday evenings from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The Art of Babar: Watercolors Drawings and Prints, is on view through January 17, 2009 at Mary Ryan Gallery, 527 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001 (Telephone: 1-212-397-0669; Website). Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Art Deco Design: Rhythm and Verve is on view through May 22, 2009 at the New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018 (Website).
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From your Guide: Beth Gersh-Nesic is an art history professor, author, art critic and the director of the New York Arts Exchange, an arts education service which offers tours, lectures and workshops in various venues, including museums, galleries, artists' studios and arts organizations.
