Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard

Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard (; 13 September 1803 – 17 March 1847) was a prolific French illustrator and caricaturist who published under the pseudonym of Grandville (), and numerous variations (e. g. Jean-Jacques Grandville, Jean Ignace Isidore Grandville) throughout his career. Art historians and critics have called him "the first star of French caricature's great age", and described his illustrations as featuring "elements of the symbolic, dreamlike, and incongruous" while retaining a sense of social commentary, and "the strangest and most pernicious transfigurement of the human shape ever produced by the Romantic imagination". The anthropomorphic vegetables and zoomorphic figures that populated his cartoons anticipated and influenced the work of generations of cartoonists and illustrators from John Tenniel, to Gustave Doré, to Félicien Rops, and Walt Disney. He has also been called a "proto-surrealist" –1825, Grandville moved to Paris and began pursuing a career in illustration and lithography. One account states his first lithograph titled La Marchande de cerises (The Cherry Seller), was published in Nancy 1824 or 1825.

Grandville's parents had friends and family in Paris working in the theater who provided work and connections early on, including a relative, Frédéric Lemétheyer, who was a stage manager in the Opéra-Comique. He began using his pseudonym, "Grandville" in Paris. It was derived from "Gérard de Grandville", his paternal grandparents stage name when they were actors and worked in the court of Lorraine. The pseudonym Grandville appeared in numerous variations throughout his career, including Grandville, Jean-Jacques Granville, J. J. Grandville, Jean Ignace Isidore Grandville, J. I. I. Grandville, Jean de Granville, and other variants. He designed illustrations for decks of playing cards and worked with Hippolyte Lecomte, a painter and ballet set designer in Paris, for whom he produced a set of color lithographs ' in 1826. That set was followed by additional series including 12 lithographs created for the printer Langlumé titled (Sundays of a Paris Bourgeois or The Tribulations of Small Property), in 1826. Subsequent collections included 53 prints in La Sibylle des salons (The Sibyl of the Salons) in 1827 and 12 prints in ' (Titles for Musical Pieces) in 1828.

The success of Grandville's previous lithographic series led to invitations to design cartoons for these papers. The first of these was the satirical paper La Silhouette where his friend Charles Philipon was working as an editor. Grandville's lithograph Let's Put Out the Light and Rekindle the Fire! ("the light" of the Enlightenment and "the fire" of book-burning), criticizing censorship of the press, was published in June 1830 and quickly proscribed by the government. La Silhouette had a short run (December 1829 – January 1831), folding after the administration's fines and pressure.

Political lithographs (1830–1835)

File:Grandville, Auferstehung, 1832, K138.jpg|Resurrection of Censorship (1832), La Caricature, No. 62, 21.7 x 26.5 cm

File:Digestion du budget (cropped).jpg|Digestion of the Budget: Administrative, Political, Moral and above all Economic Work (1832), La Caricature, No. 82, 16.7 x 31 cm

File:The People Delivered to the Vampire Taxes MET DP818656 (cropped).jpg|The People Delivered to the Vampire Taxes (1833), L'Association Mensuelle No. 10, 23.4 x 33.7 cm

File:Aanval van de Franse overheid op de vrijheid van drukpers Descente dans les ateliers de la liberté de la presse (titel op object), RP-P-2015-26-1607 (cropped).jpg|French Government Attack on the Freedom of the Printing Press (1833), La Caricature, 35.4 x 53.3 cm

File:Etrennes au peuple (cropped).jpg|Gifts to the People (1833), La Caricature, No. 113, 23.4 x 20.4

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Later career: 1836–1847

thumb|Water lily (1846), from Les fleurs animées (Animated Flowers or Flowers Personified)

At the outbreak of the July Revolution of 1830, Grandville was a 26-year-old bachelor living a bohemian life. By the time the September Laws were passed in 1835, he was a 31-year-old husband, and a father. He quit producing political cartoons after the September Laws and turned to illustrating books. It has been postulated that he was relieved and even happy to leave the politics and police harassment behind at this point in his life. In July 1833 he married a cousin from Nancy, Marguerite Henriette Fischer and the couple maintained an apartment close to his studio, and rented a house near the outskirts of town. In 1834 their first son Ferdinand was born. A second son, Henri, was born in fall of 1838, but tragedy soon struck the family. Marguerite's health is said to have declined with each birth and Ferdinand died of meningitis about the time Henri was born. In 1841 Henri choked to death on a piece of bread while his parents helplessly watched. A third son, Georges, was born in July 1842 but, Marguerite died of peritonitis later that month. Grandville remarried in October 1843 to Catherine Marceline Lhuillier (1819–1888) who was the mother of his fourth son Armand, born in 1845. One source states that from her deathbed, his first wife Marguerite, had a hand in selecting Catherine as a second wife and stepmother for her husband and son. which approaches the status of pure surrealism, despite being conceived in a pre-Freudian age. The full title of the book is, Un autre monde: Transformations, visions, incarnations, ascensions, locomotions, explorations, pérégrinations, excursions, stations, cosmogonies, fantasmagories, rêveries, folâtreries, facéties, lubies, métamorphoses, zoomorphoses, lithomorphoses, métempsycoses, apothéoses et autres choses (Another world: Transformations, visions, incarnations, ascents, locomotions, explorations, peregrinations, excursions, stations, cosmogonies, phantasmagoria, reveries, frolics, pranks, fads, metamorphoses, zoomorphoses, lithomorphoses, metempsychoses, apotheoses and other things).

Original drawings

File:Grandville, Bird's Eye View of a Man and Woman Conversing (c. 1830), National Gallery of Art.jpg|Bird's Eye View of a Man and Woman Conversing (c. 1830), graphite, 18.3 x 17.8 cm., National Gallery of Art

File:Grandville, Le cabinet particulier.jpg|Le cabinet particulier (The Private Office) undated, pen and ink, watercolor, 18.2 x 25.6 cm, Louvre

File:Grandville, A Bulldog Butcher with a Rabbit on his Knee.jpg|A Bulldog Butcher with a Rabbit on his Knee (undated), pen & ink, 9.9 x 11.7 cm., Morgan Library & Museum

File:An Insect Ball (1835), pen, ink and watercolor, 12.5 x 21.3 cm., Cleveland Museum of Art.jpg|An Insect Ball (1835), pen, ink, and watercolor, 12.5 x 21.3 cm., Cleveland Museum of Art

File:Grandville, Visiting of the Piggy Banks, Un autre monde,. (1843), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen.jpg|The Visiting of the Piggy Banks, from Another World (1843), pen, ink and wash, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

File:Grandville, Jérôme Paturot (ca. 1846), Metropolitan Museum (A).jpg|Jérôme Paturot (1846), pen and ink, 20.4 x 14 cm., Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Legacy

thumb|left|The Relics (c. 1835), pen and ink with gouache 11.8 x 9.4 cm., Cleveland Museum of Art

Alexandre Dumas wrote in his memoirs: "Grandville had a delicate and sarcastic smile, eyes that sparkled with intelligence, a satirical mouth, short figure, large heart and a delightful tincture of melancholy perceptible everywhere — that is your portrait, dear Grandville!"

Honoré de Balzac expressed ambivalent views of Grandville. He was an enthusiastic supporter and collector of Grandville's early print series, and the two worked together at La Caricature in the early 1830s, where Balzac worked as an editor, and caricatures were an integral part of the newspaper. However in the 1840s, when publishers begin including illustrations in books, Balzac became more critical. He believed illustrations competed with the written word, distorted and diluted the text, and were undermining the market for novels, perhaps with some justification. Balzac contributed chapters to Grandville's Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux (1842) which was one of the bestsellers of the 1840s, selling 25,000 copies, while Balzac's first edition novels of the period were only selling 1,200–3,000 copies.

Charles Baudelaire, friend and champion of Honoré Daumier, was not a fan of Grandville. It seems odd that the author of Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), with poems such as Spleen, and the great admirer and translator of Edgar Allan Poe, felt frightened by the images of Grandville. Today his criticisms read like an underhanded compliment.</blockquote>

His style and humour had a marked influence on John Tenniel and various other Punch-cartoonists. Grandville's affinity with surrealism has been recognized since the 1930s. His work was included in the Museum of Modern Art's landmark exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, and Sureealism in 1936. However, the art historian William Rubin pointed out the absence of any reference or recognition of Grandville by André Breton in his two manifestos of surrealism, or the other surrealists in the formative years of the movement in the 1920s. After a period of relative obscurity in the early 20th century, Grandville's work became widely reproduced in the 1930s. Ernst later made the frontispiece for a 1963 facsimile edition of Un autre monde with a caption reading "A new world is born. All praise to Grandville." which is set during a fictionalized version of the French Revolution of 1848.

Gallery

La Fontaine 's Fables (1838–1840) wood engravings

File:Grandville - Fables de La Fontaine - 01-02 . Le corbeau et le renard (cropped).jpg|The Fox and the Crow, Vol. I, no. 2

File:Grandville - Fables de La Fontaine - 01-16 . La Mort et le Bûcheron (cropped).jpg|Death and the Woodcutter, Vol. I, no. 16

File:Grandville - Fables de La Fontaine - 01-22 . Le Chêne et le Roseau (cropped).jpg|The Oak and the Reed, Vol. I, no. 22

File:Grandville - Fables de La Fontaine - 04-07 . Le Singe et le Dauphin (cropped).jpg|The Monkey and the Dolphin, Vol. IV, no. 7

File:Grandville - Fables de La Fontaine - 05-02 . Le Pot de terre et le Pot de fer (cropped).jpg|The Earthen Pot and the Iron Pot, Vol. V, no. 2

File:Grandville - Fables de La Fontaine - 06-10 . Le Lièvre et la Tortue (cropped).jpg|The Turtle and the Hare, Vol. VI, no. 10

File:Grandville - Fables de La Fontaine - 10-01 . Les Deux Rats, le Renard et l'Œuf (cropped).jpg|The Two Rats the Fox and the Egg, Vol. X, no. 1

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Un autre monde (1843–44), preliminary drawings: graphite, pen & ink, some with watercolor

File:Grandville, Société des enfants d'Apollon.jpg|Concert a la Vapor, private collection

File:Le Cirque Grandville (cropped).jpg|The Circus Seen from the Sky, Musée Carnavalet

File:Grandville Le Louvre des marionnettes (cropped).jpg|The Finger of God, private collection

File:Grandville La Fête des fleurs (cropped).jpg|The Celebration of Flowers, private collection

File:Les Mystères de l'infini (cropped).jpg|The Bridge of the Planets, private collection

File:Grandville les grands et les petits def (cropped).jpg|The Big and Small, private collection

File:Grandville Un radis dramatique (cropped).jpg|A Dramatic Radish, Bibliothèque municipale de Nancy

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Un autre monde (1844), wood engravings

File:Un autre monde titre (cropped).jpg|Another World, Title page

File:Grandville Autre Monde Frontispice (cropped) (cropped).jpg|Another World, Frontispice

File:Grandville Concert à la vapeur 2 (cropped).jpg|200 Trombones Performing a Tune from the Symphony

File:Grandville Le Carnaval en bouteille 1 (cropped).jpg|In a Case Attached to the Bottle was a Manuscript

File:Grandville Caractères travestis 2.jpg|Puff's Shop Sign for Transvestite Disguises

File:Grandville Un voyage d'avril 1 alt (cropped).jpg|An April Voyage

File:Grandville, The blind, deaf, and impartial judge (1844).jpg|Blind, Deaf, and Impartial Judge

File:Grandville Une Eclipse conjugale 2 (cropped).jpg|Conjugal Eclipse

File:Grandville Les Amours d'un pantin 4 (cropped).jpg|Venus of the Opera

File:Grandville Une Après Midi 2 (cropped).jpg|An Amphibious Dromedary

File:Grandville Locomotions aériennes 3 (cropped).jpg|An Elastic Rocket

File:Grandville Les Mystères de l'infini 3 (cropped).jpg|A Magician with the Planets

File:Grandville Les Quatre Saisons 3 (cropped).jpg|Summer Chose this Place to Make its Thunder

File:Grandville Les Métamorphoses du sommeil 3 (cropped).jpg|Gold is a Chimera

File:Grandville Les Métamorphoses du sommeil 5 alt (cropped).jpg|The Battle of the Cards

File:Grandville La Meilleure forme de gouvernement 2.jpg|His Skill Consist of Being Immobile

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Jérôme Paturot à la recherche d'une position sociale (1846), wood engravings

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115872621) (cropped).jpg|Title page

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115872641) (cropped).jpg|The Bonnet of the Great Romantic

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115872665) (cropped).jpg|The premiere of Hernani

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115873056) (cropped).jpg|The Asp, Literary Journal

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115873369) (cropped).jpg|The Water Cure

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115873551) (cropped).jpg|Breakfast with the emancipated

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115873785) (cropped).jpg|The hat on the move

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115873874) (cropped).jpg|A Small Paturot

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115874397) (cropped).jpg|The hungry

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115874799) (cropped).jpg|The hall is solid, it can take the strain! (Berlioz)

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115875047) (cropped).jpg|Artist admiring his work

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115875392) (cropped).jpg|Tobacco

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115876247) (cropped).jpg|Skeletons of the Moon Sheep

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115876357) (cropped).jpg|A Strange Funnel

File:Jerome Paturot a la recherche d'une position sociale 1846 (115876483) (cropped).jpg|The genius cooks

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Selected works

Les Métamorphoses du jour (Metamorphoses of the Day), 73 lithographs, Aubert, Paris, 1829
Voyage pour l'éternité (Voyage to Eternity), 9 lithographs, Aubert, Paris, 1830
La Silhouette (The Silhouette), 9 lithographs, periodical illustrations, 1829–1831
La Caricature (The Caricature), 120 lithographs, periodical illustrations, 1830–1835
Le Charivari (Le Charivari), 106 lithographs, periodical illustrations, 1832–1835
L'Association Mensuelle lithographique (The Association of Monthly Lithographs), 16 lithographs, 1 etching, 1 engraving, periodical illustrations, 1832–1834
Le Magasin pittoresque (The Picturesque Store), 67 woodcuts, periodical illustrations, 1833–1857
24 breuvages de l'homme (24 Beverages of Man), 8 lithographs, Bulla, Paris, 1835
Oeuvres complétes de P. de Beranger (Complete works of P. de Béranger), 38 wood engravings, Fournier et Perrotin, Paris, 1835 (100 wood engravings in 1837 edition)
Fables de La Fontaine (La Fontaine 's Fables), 258 wood engravings, Fournier et Perrotin, Paris, 1838–1840
Voyages de Gulliver (Gulliver's Travels), by Jonathan Swift, 346 wood engravings, Fournier et Furne, Paris, 1838
Les Aventures de Robinson Crusoe (The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe), by Daniel Defoe, 206 wood engravings, Fournier, Paris, 1840
Les Français peints par eux-mêmes (The French Painted by Themselves), periodical illustrations, 18 wood engravings, 1840
Fables de Lavalette (Fables of Lavalette), 21 etchings, Paulin et Hetzel, Paris, 1841 (33 etchings in 1847 ed.)
Fables de Florian (Fables of Florian), 95 wood engravings, Dubochet, Paris, 1842
Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux (Scenes of the Private and Public Life of Animals), 320 wood engravings, Hetzel et Paulin, Paris, 1842
Petites misères de la vie humaine (Little Miseries of Human Life), by Old Nick & Grandville, 222 wood engravings, Fournier, Paris, 1843
L'Illustration (The Illustration), 17 wood engravings, periodical illustrations, 1843–1845
Un autre monde (Another World), text by Taxile Delord, 185 wood engravings, Fournier, Paris, 1844.
Cent proverbes: par trois Tetes dans un bonnet (One Hundred Proverbs: by Three Heads in a Bonnet), by Old Nick, Taxile Delord, & Amédée Achard, 105 wood engravings, Fournier, Paris, 1845
Jérôme Paturot à la recherche d'une position sociale (Jérôme Paturot in Search of a Social Position), by Louis Reybaud, 186 wood engravings, Dubochet, Paris, 1846
Les fleurs animées (Animated Flowers or Flowers Personified), text by Taxile Delord, 2 wood engravings, 50 engravings, Gabriel de Gonet, Paris 1846
L'Ingénieux hidalgo Don Quichotte de La Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha), by Cervantes, 18 wood engravings, 8 engravings, Ad Mame et Cie, Tours, 1848

References

External links

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oc:Grandville

Later career: 1836–1847

Legacy

Gallery

Selected works

References

Further reading

External links