VOCAL CONCERT WITH BARN ANINMALS
Grandville, Jean-Jacques (1803-1847)
Concert Vocal.
Paris, mid 19th century. Total size in mat: 11.5" h x 14.5" w (29 cm x 37 cm). Total size of print: 5.75" h x 8.75" w (14.5 cm x 22 cm). In very good condition (just a bit dusty). Trimmed to image.In this delightful hand-colored lithograph, a line of barnyard animals depicted with human bodies sings to the accompaniment of a ram pianist and a sheep conductor. Each singer holds music with a voice type printed at the top. The rooster at the back, whose music is marked Soprano Castro, has the typical protruding round belly of a castrato singer, and the bespectacled ram who sings the Basse Taille part holds his music at his waist, as though in an effort to see it more clearly.
Jean-Jacques Grandville was a famous French caricaturist. This lithograph comes from a seventy-print series entitled Les Métamorphoses du jour (1828-1829), in which Grandville shows animal-headed humans in humorous scenes. It was the work that put Grandville on the map and he was praised for his ability to capture human expressions on animal faces.
GPH-15385$225We do not believe this print is a first state, as it does not bear the names of the artist or lithographer.