a tale of two Maurices, and others

Speaking of pictures, and things people make: among the pictures I recently had framed were two original (i.e., taken from some falling-apart book) prints by one of my favourite illustrators, the French artist Maurice Boutet de Monvel. I first saw his work at the age of about 13 or so, when my mother had a calendar of pictures by him. The pictures on the calendar must have come from his book of manners for children, La Civilité; they incorporate text within them - that is, they're framed around the text - and the text says things like:

"Mademoiselle, now it is my turn," said one. "No, Mademoiselle, I don't want to give it to you," said the other. "Because you were naughty." "Not at all, Mademoiselle, it was you who started it." Soon the two of them are fighting with their nails like bad alley cats. Their brothers are obliged to separate them, and their mothers are desolated to have such low children.












That one, and another, I loved so much I saved, and had them framed years ago: and now I have two more, which are lovely and delicate but not quite as funny. The books themselves were beautiful, in the manner of the age. How exciting to be a child and be given one of those books! (And even better still in French. I've never seen the original of the above-quoted picture. The colours are badly washed-out on mine.)

Do click on this link and go to a lovely blog post about Boutet de Monvel. Look at the sequence of pictures, see how de Monvel's children slowly come alive, and think of pictures in children's books today. This makes clear his importance, and points up - though a look through his book Caldecott & Co yields nothing - how influential these delicate, witty and humane drawings must have been on that other great Maurice: Sendak.

And incidentally, there are a series of books I loved more than anything when I was a child, by the wonderful, undersung Edward Eager. His books were illustrated by NM Bodecker. I loved those light, lively drawings, and the picture at the top of this post - which the above-linked blog says is in its own right a highly influential picture - is clearly the source for Bodecker's charming children.


















(Half Magic: the first book I ever bought with my own money, on my own, when I was six. I still have it.)