Sunflower worshipping the Sun. Grandville Girasol antique print

by Grandville, Jean-Jacques

Queen's last album before Freddie Mercury died: Girasol, Grandville's Animated Flowers. The male Sunflower is on top of the hill facing the sun. Lower down, the lady Sunflower also looks towards the sun, with hands chastely crossed at her chest.

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 engraving is 175 x 130mm (7 x 5 inches). Image including title measures approximately 135 x 100mm (approximately 5.1/4 x 4 inches). It is currently mounted between antique-white conservation boards, with gold-painted bevel-edge around window, and covered with cellophane for protection until framed.The external mount for frame measures 270 x 230mm (10 5/8 x 9 inches).