Recueil de Fables Choisies (Cover: Fables Choisies)
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Authors
Jean de La Fontaine; Florian
Issue Date
1937
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Abstract
This book is squarely in the tradition of canvas-bound large-format fable books printed in Belgium before (and perhaps shortly after?) World War II. Among them this book is a singular exemplar, especially because of the variety of illustration styles in a 62-page book. Left-hand pages present texts and right-hand pages illustrations. Artists include LeRoy, LeRaille (?), Maurice Lemainque, and J. Ea???. Many illustrations are not signed. FC as a brown-tinted triptych on 55 echoes the black-and-white central panel on the first page after the title-page. Perhaps the closest approximation is the long “Fables Choisies de La Fontaine et de Florian” from 1937. Some of the designs here replicate those there but are differently colored, like “The Cobbler and the Financier” on 59, with green color added to what is there only a line drawing. Pages that appeared as monochrome there are now wonderfully colored, like “The Phoenix” (21) and “The Tight Rope Walker” (29). The coloring of duochrome illustrations seems to me often rather garish! The front cover pictures a grandmother reading to two children. No publisher acknowledged.