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Title
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en_US
La Fontaine Fables: Trente-cinq lithographies originales de Hans Erni
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Description
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en_US
Language note: French
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en_US
Signed by Gronin and Erni
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en_US
Traduit du Latin par E. Panckoucke
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Creator
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en_US
Erni, Hans
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Contributor
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en_US
Erni, Hans
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Date
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2016-01-25T19:28:37Z
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en_US
2004-05
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en_US
1955
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Date Available
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2016-01-25T19:28:37Z
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Date Issued
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en_US
1955
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Abstract
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en_US
I had seen this portfolio only once before, in the home of my favorite private collector. I knew of Erni from his great illustrations for Ovid's Metamorphoses. I thought I would never have a chance at adding a copy to the collection. Hurray! It is as lovely as I remember it from my first viewing. Twenty-one fables are presented. A reader first extracts from its own box a portfolio with stiff matching covers. Inside this portfolio there is a heavy-paper inner jacket. The jacket surrounds a number of unbound four-page segments. The frontispiece is a striking portrait of La Fontaine. The other thirty-four illustrations are before, after, around, or within the text. Bodemann's comment is correct: the illustrations would need the text for clarification, for many of them represent individual characters and not fable scenes. Some favorites among the illustrations found with the fables are the hooves of the battling goats still falling into the water (20) and the personified oak and reed (48-49). In fact, these are scenes that suggest the fable rather than just the characters in the fable. When one comes to the end of the fables about halfway through the portfolio, one finds a T of C and a colophon page with the signatures of Gronin and Erni, which includes mention that this copy has been specially printed for Dr. Bernard Wissmer. There is even the numbered bookmark for this copy! Then one finds, without text, not only many of the lithographed illustrations already seen with the fables. There are also many studies which Erni apparently did in preparation. Many of these show Erni's penchant for presenting animals in human terms. Thus there is a striking illustration of a creature with a stag's head but a human body immersed in water up to his knees. There is a fine collection of acorns and pumpkins. There are fish with human faces. Studies for the lion and ass in Les Animals malades de la Peste give both of them human faces. And there are excellent studies for The Man and the Flea. Again in these last images the fable's point makes it way into the illustration. This lovely portfolio is one of the stars of this collection!
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Identifier
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en_US
5034 (Access ID)
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Language
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en_US
fre
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Publisher
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en_US
André Gonin
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en_US
Lausanne
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Subject
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en_US
PQ1808.Z9 E75 1955
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en_US
La Fontaine
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Type
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en_US
Book, Whole