From The Archive: Jean de Brunhoff 📜
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Time to read 2 min
This month marks the birthday of French illustrator and writer, Jean de Brunhoff, best known for his series of children’s books which featured Babar the little elephant. We received part of Babar’s history through the acquisition of Egmont in 2020 so thought we would share a little of those records we now hold in the archive.
Jean de Brunhoff was born on 9th December 1899 and was the youngest child of four. He studied at art school after returning from the front in WWI, and eventually married before having three sons of his own. While Jean de Brunhoff is the name most closely associated with Babar, credit for the creation of the character actually goes to his wife, Cecile, who thought up Babar while telling stories to their sons. Laurent and Mathieu loved the stories so much, they asked their dad to illustrate them. Cecile’s name was initially going to be included on the title page along with Jean’s name, however it was ultimately omitted. This was due to her own modesty, according to their son Mathieu.
The first book was titled Histoire de Babar – The Story of Babar and was published by Les Jardins des Modes in 1931. It tells the story of a young African elephant who leaves the jungle after his mother his shot, and travels to Paris, before eventually returning to the jungle with a new education and culture. The book enjoyed immediate success upon its release which prompted the publication of an English language version in the States, and in the UK by Methuen in 1933, introduced by A. A. Milne.
Jean wrote a further six Babar stories – The Travels of Babar, Babar the King, A.B.C of Babar, Zephir’s Holidays, Babar and His Children, Babar and Father Christmas – before he sadly died from tuberculosis on 16th October 1937, aged only 37. His son, Laurent de Brunhoff, extended his father’s legacy by training himself to paint in the same style, and eventually went on to publish over 45 new Babar books himself.
The success of Babar speaks for itself. The character is so popular that the books were made into a tv series in the late 80s/early 90s, in addition to a number of films. Over 8 million Babar books have been sold across 17 different languages, and there are even Babar stores in Japan. The little elephant has a large following it would seem!
We have a wonderful selection of records relating to Babar in the archive. These include; editorial correspondence, author correspondence with Laurent de Brunhoff, marketing and licensing material, reviews, publicity, and not to forget the large collection of books.
We even have a lovely big Babar cut-out that keeps good company with other recognisable children’s characters!
To wrap this up, we’ll leave you with the words of another renowned children’s author and illustrator who spoke very highly of Jean de Brunhoff’s work;
‘Like an extravagant piece of poetry, the interplay between few words and many pictures, commonly called the picture book, is a difficult, exquisite, and most easily collapsible form that few have mastered….Jean de Brunhoff was a master of this form. Between 1931 and 1937 he completed a body of work that forever changed the face of the illustrated book.’ – Maurice Sendak.