Les histoires de Babar (Babar Stories) exhibition is currently on display at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Museum of Decorative Arts) to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of Babar in Paris until September 2.
Babar was brought to life by the pen of French illustrator Jean de Brunhoff. One summer evening in 1930, his wife Cecile de Brunhoff told their daughter and son the story of a little elephant in the jungle, who fled to the city after a hunter had killed his mother.
The story might have remained unknown, but the children then told the story to their father, Jean de Brunhoff, a painter. Captivated with the tale, the artist drew an album of watercolors that he called The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant.
The exhibit features all the Babar books, with a selection of a hundred original drawings lent by French and foreign institutions such as the Bibliothèque Nationale. the Morgan Library and the Mary Ryan Gallery in New York, as well as private collectors.
With a multi-generational following, the king of the elephants, is one of the best-loved heroes of children’s literature worldwide, with books translated into 27 languages, and more than 13 million copies sold in 167 countries.
The exhibition is on display in the Toy Gallery at the museum’s Rivoli site.