"At this frightful story, Zemire throws himself at Azor's feet" from Scenes from the Private and Public Life of Animals
ca. 1837–47
Medium
Wood engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 10 3/8 × 7 3/16 in. (26.3 × 18.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection. The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
Accession Number
59.500.592(57)
Art Historical Context
In the whimsical world of 19th French satire, "At this frightful story Zemire throws himself ator's feet" captures a dramatic moment from *Scenes from the Private and Life of Animals* (ca. 1842), a celebrated collaborative book blending text by Honoré de Balzac with illustrations by J.J. Grandville. This wood engraving, measuring 10 3/8 × 7 3/16 inches, draws from the fairy tale *Zémire et Azor*—a French variant of *Beauty and the Beast*—reimagined with anthropomorphic animals to poke fun at human follies, social hierarchies, and romantic entanglements. Grandville, a master of caricature and ...
About the Artist
Honoré de Balzac|J. J. Grandville (French|French) · 1799 |1803 –1850 |1847
French, Tours 1799–1850 Paris|French, Nancy 1803–1847 Vanves