Ernest Henri Griset (24 August 1843, Boulogne-sur-Mer, – 22 March 1907, London) was a French-born painter and illustrator noted for the humorous interpretations of his subjects. He specialized especially in animal illustrations many of which were made for children's books as well as magazines like ''Punch''.

Life and work

Griset was born in France but his parents moved to England in 1848. He studied for a while under the Belgian artist

Louis Gallait Louis Gallait (9 or 10 May 1810 – 20 November 1887) was a Walloons, Belgian painter. He lay at the basis of a revival of history painting in Belgium. He earned his reputation especially with the large painting of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, ...

before moving back to England, then regularly drew the animals at the

London Zoo London Zoo, previously known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens and sometimes called Regent's Park Zoo, is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828 and was originally intended to be used as a colle ...

as a basis for his paintings and illustrations. He became known particularly for his humorous and satirical designs, which were best displayed in his two Christmas books, ''Griset’s Grotesques, or Jokes Drawn on Wood'' (1867), which was accompanied by the comic verses of

Tom Hood Thomas Hood (19 January 183520 November 1874) was an English humorist, playwright and author. He was the son of the poet and author Thomas Hood. ''Pen and Pencil Pictures'' (1857) was the first of his illustrated books. His most successful no ...

. Many examples of Griset's work are now in the collections of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

. Less well known are the prehistoric hunting scenes specially commissioned by

Sir John Lubbock John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury (30 April 1834 – 28 May 1913), known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Baronet, from 1865 until 1900, was an English banker, Liberal politician, philanthropist, scientist and polymath. Lubbock worked in his family comp ...

, some of which are in Bromley Museum, and which were a ground-breaking and sympathetic treatment of the subject. Some of his comic work appeared in '' Punch'', where he was briefly on the staff between 1867-9, as well as in its competitor, ''

Fun Fun is defined by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' as "light-hearted pleasure, enjoyment, or amusement; boisterous joviality or merrymaking; entertainment". Etymology and usage The word ''fun'' is associated with sports, entertaining medi ...

''. He left Punch at the age of twenty four and worked on illustrating ''Aesop’s Fables (1869).'' Of this work a reviewer noted that "nothing so quaint as these illustrations has appeared since the days of Grandville…Griset possesses the faculty of investing his animals with human expression, without ever causing them to lose their own identity, and of making them funny without being ridiculous." A decade later, Griset may have been complicit in an attempt to revive his sales by having a death notice appear in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' on 9 July 1877, where he was described as having "produced countless drawings in grotesque of animals and human savages, which wise collectors obtained for trivial sums at an untidy little shop near Leicester Square". A few days later the paper admitted that he was neither dead nor even ailing.Worthpoint
/ref> He was, in fact, to survive for another thirty years.

References

External links

*
''Aesop's Fables''
Rev. and rewritten by J.B. Rundell, London, New York : Cassell Petter and Galpin 1869 *
AlternateGriset's Grotesques, Or, Jokes Drawn on Wood
(1867)
Vikram and the Vampire
(1870) {{DEFAULTSORT:Griset, Ernest 1843 births 1907 deaths French emigrants to the United Kingdom 19th-century English painters Punch (magazine) cartoonists English children's book illustrators 19th-century English male artists

Life and work

References

Further reading

External links