"To pay the landlord, a very harsh man, whose name was M. Vautour" from Scenes from the Private and Public Life of Animals
Medium
Wood engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 10 3/8 × 7 3/16 in. (26.3 × 18.2 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(13)
Art Historical Context
This wood engraving, titled *"To pay the landlord, a harsh man, whose name M. Vautour"* (ca. 1837–47), comes from the satirical series *Scenes from the Private and Public Life Animals*. Created by French illustrator J.J. Grand, with contributions from writer Honoré de Balzac possibly Andrew Best Leloir, it exemplifies 19th-century French caricature art. Grandville's signature style features anthropomorphic animals in human scenarios, poking fun at societal follies—from bureaucracy to class struggles—through witty, exaggerated visuals. The scene humorously depicts a tenant animal scrambling to...
About the Artist
Andrew Best Leloir|Honoré de Balzac|J. J. Grandville (French|French|British) · 1832 |1798 |1564 –1850 |1863 |1616
French|French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris|British, Stratford-upon-Avon 1564–1616 Stratford-upon-Avon