Animals Are Us: Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature; Celebrating the Peter J. Solomon Collection

29a–B
Jean de Brunhoff (French, 1899–1937, author-illustrator)
Preliminary sketches and cover study for L’ABC de Babar,
1934
Graphite on paper, 12 x 9 cm; gouache on paper, 13 x 12 cm
Houghton Library, MS Typ 1186 (1, 7)
Bayard Livingston Kilgour and Kate Gray Kilgour fund and
The Philip Hofer Charitable Trust, 2015
This book for early readers was published with a cover showing
Babar writing the title on a blackboard with a piece of chalk in
his trunk. These preliminary sketches reveal de Brunhoff ’s early
thinking about the project. Ultimately his illustrations became
more complex, packed with visual references to each letter of
the alphabet. Are the stories of dapper Babar an endorsement
of French colonialism that perpetuates demeaning stereotypes,
or are they satires of imperial propaganda—and can a child
tell the difference? The lasting impact of children’s literature,
no matter how young the reader or however entertaining the
subject, is not to be underestimated. Books expand a child’s
vision of the world beyond their home. What is the world you
want them to see?
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