Sweet Pea drinking from watering-can. Guisante de Olor (Spanish) c1902.

by Grandville, Jean-Jacques

Sweet Peas antique print from Grandville's flower ladies. While the sweet pea in the foreground drinks from a watering-can, in the background another sweet pea wrings her hands. To the right, a spade draped with a coat and a hat on top, looks rather ominously like a man.

Colour-printed engraving highlighted with gum arabic for publication in Spain c1902; engraved by Geoffroy after the drawing of French illustrator and caricaturist Jean-Ignace-Isidore Gérard (1803-1847) for Les Fleurs Animées (Animated Flowers), first published in Paris c1847.

From an early age Jean-Jacques was tutored in drawing by his father, miniature-artist Jean-Baptiste Gérard. Jean-Jacques adopted the name 'Grandville' from his father’s actor parents who were known as 'Gérard de Grandville'. Flowers were given human characters, that ranged from charming to gruesome, depending on Grandville's state of mind. Grandville acquired fame by adding animal and bird heads to people's bodies, and as here, by portraying flowers as ladies with personalities. His 'animations' were so popular, that they were reissued a number of times in the United States, Belgium, Germany and Spain.

This wonderful little engraving is 185 x 110mm (7.1/4 x 4.1/4 inches). Image including title measures approximately 110 x 85mm (4.1/4 x 3.3/4 inches). It is currently mounted between antique-white boards, and covered with cellophane for protection until framed.The external mount for frame window measurement is 280 x 240mm (11 x 9.5 inches)