La Fontaine Vingt Fables

Abstract

Bodemann 467.1. Bassy #56. Mentioned (30) by Hobbs. One of the stars of this collection! For each fable, there is a large lithograph on the third (or right-inside) page of a four-page folio made by folding a large sheet once; the back of the lithograph-page is always blank. (The exception to this rule comes in the frontispiece, OF, for which the text is on the first page of the folio for the first regular fable.) There is a slip-sheet for each lithograph. The fable text precedes (and if necessary follows) the illustration. Bodemann's succinct criticism is helpful: Grossflächige Gestaltung, kräftige Farbakzente, surrealistische Inhalte. Fabelthemen z.T. drastisch verfremdet. Reduktion der Fabelhandlung auf einige plakative interpretationsbedürftige Symbole. The illustrations typically add two or three colors to black and white. Bassy lists the twenty subjects. There are some wild creations here! For me the wildest are L'Astrologue qui se laisse tomber dans un Puits (23); Le Lion abattu par l'Homme (27); and FG (39). In this last illustration the vine grows directly out of a mountain-top. The best of the illustrations for me are: L'Oiseau blessé d'une Flèche (19); Le Rat et le Huitre (55); Le Cerf malade (59); Le Soleil et les Grenouilles (75); and TT (79). There are also ornamental black-and-white vignettes after eight of the fable texts. There is a T of C at the beginning. The copy is signed by Gonin and Lurçat and numbered #150 of 250 (+25)..