Creating Babar

from December 13, 2011 to January 29, 2012 François-Mitterrand / Donors’ gallery

Exhibitions will be opened from 10.00am to 4.00pm on Saturday 24 December and Saturday 31 December 2011.

In 1930, on a Summer evening, Cécile de Brunhoff told her children, Laurent and Mathieu, who were five and four years old, the story of a baby elephant reaching the city to escape from the hunter who had just killed its mother. The two young boys told the story to their father, Jean de Brunhoff, a painter, who decided to create texts and images, building The story of Babar: the little elephant. Published by Le Jardin des modes in 1931, the book initiated a revolution in children’s literature. Jean de Brunhoff created six more Babar books; then, after his sudden death, new adventures were imagined and drawn by his son, Laurent.Thanks to a generous donation from Jean de Brunhoff’s children, Laurent, Mathieu and Thierry, the BnF’s collections have been enriched in 2005 with an outstanding series of preliminary original drawings for three Babar books. It includes: 23 original watercolours and 11 unpublished drawings for The Travels of Babar (Le Voyage de Babar – 1932), the whole series of original pen drawings and corresponding coloured proofs intended to Zéphir’s holidays (Les Vacances de Zéphir - 1936), a number of sketches, the dummy and original watercolours of Babar’s castle (Le Château de Babar) created by Laurent de Brunhoff in 1961. Housed in the Rare Books Department, these documents show the art of Babar books: skills at line drawing, shape and colour creation, layout and narrative making.

The exhibition is the opportunity to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the venerable elephant which is also celebrated at the Galerie des jouets du Musée des arts décoratifs de Paris, from December the 8th, 2011, to September the 2^nd, 2012. A common catalog will be published on the occasion of both exhibitions.