Fables de La Fontaine

Abstract

Here I have worked my way back to an apparent first edition of Bodemann 466.1. The special feature of this book of one hundred and five fables is the full-page photolithographs by Auger. I find sixteen in all, including a good frontispiece (5) of La Fontaine and the animals and a good last page of GGE (192). Three others strike me as very good: TT (13); Le Chat, la Belette et le petit Lapin (121); and Le Vieillard & ses Enfants (185). I find the style typical of 50's art: Disneyesque, spirited, sentimental, and colorful. There is a touch of Dufy here. Bodemann, who seems to find only fifteen full-page colored illustrations, is not as positive as I am about this art. Let me quote some of Bodemann's assessment: Die ganzseitigen Darstellungen bilderbuchhaft: Protagonisten meist in voller Bildhoehe mit ein oder zwei detailliert beschriebenen, groesseren Gegenstaenden als Kulissen in Szenen mit zirkusaehnlicher Wirkung; Tiere mit uebertrieben-schelmischer, naiver Mimik in Bewegungsmomenten (Lauf, Sprung o. ae.), Menschen ueberdimensional schmal oder breit, mit nervoeser Mimik und Gestik und emotionsbestimmter Haltung. The covers of this book are leatherlike red cloth with an embossed black design imprinted on the front cover. See my later printing of this work under 1949/1962.