'An Elephant at the Great Royal Hotel'
n.p.: , 1865. Item #04719
“An Elephant Takes His Ease at the Great Royal Hotel”
Four Superb Original Pen, Ink and Watercolor Drawings by Ernest Griset
A Delightful Victorian Comic Suite, ca. 1865
GRISET, Ernest. An Elephant at the Great Royal Hotel. Four original pen, ink and watercolor drawings. [London?]: n.p., n.d., ca. 1865. Framed and glazed.
A delightful and remarkably cohesive suite of four original drawings by Ernest Griset, depicting a bespectacled elephant enjoying the comforts of the “Great Royal Hotel,” attended by a diminutive monkey waiter.
Four original drawings in pen and ink and watercolor on paper, each sheet approximately 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches (82 x 108 mm.), individually mounted together and framed and glazed. The drawings are variously signed with Griset's initials “E.G.,” one additionally signed in full in pencil “Ernest Griset.” Some scattered light foxing and toning to the sheets, nevertheless the watercolors remain bright and fresh.
The four drawings comprise:
1. An Elephant Reading the Daily Paper.
A seated elephant, wearing spectacles, reads his newspaper at a table in the Great Royal Hotel while being attended by a monkey waiter in a red waistcoat. “GREAT ROYAL HOTEL” appears in the background. Image size: 2 3/8 x 2 3/8 inches (60 x 60 mm.). Signed with Griset's initials and additionally signed in full in pencil.
2. An Elephant Reading The Times.
The elephant, spectacles perched upon his trunk, sits at a small café table with a glass before him, engrossed in an enormous copy of The Times, while the monkey waiter approaches carrying a tray. Image size: 3 x 2 5/8 inches (71 x 67 mm.). Signed with the artist's initials “E.G.”
3. An Elephant Taking Refreshment.
The elephant sits comfortably at his table, spectacles in place, drinking from a glass while his newspaper spills dramatically across the table and his monkey attendant waits nearby. Image size: 2 5/8 x 2 1/2 inches (67 x 60 mm.). Signed with the artist's initials “E.G.”
4. An Elephant at the “Great Royal Hotel.”
The elephant sits back contentedly at his table with his newspaper and refreshments, attended by the monkey waiter; “GREAT ROYAL HOTEL” appears prominently in the background. Image size: 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches (57 x 57 mm.). Signed with the artist's initials “E.G.”
Our photographs of the complete group show particularly well the unity of the four compositions: the same elephant, spectacles, café table, newspapers and monkey waiter recur throughout, while the hotel setting is specifically identified within the drawings as the “GREAT ROYAL HOTEL.” The individual photographs also reveal the wonderfully observed comic details—the enormous newspaper draped over the table, the elephant delicately manipulating his glass with his trunk, and the splendidly liveried monkey hurrying about with trays, bottles and glasses.
The repeated characters, setting and props strongly suggest that the four drawings were conceived as a related comic sequence rather than as independent animal studies. They are wonderfully characteristic examples of the particular talent that made Griset one of the most distinctive animal caricaturists of Victorian England: his ability to give animals entirely recognizable human personalities while never sacrificing their essential animal character.
Ernest Henri GRISET (1843-1907). Born in Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France, Ernest Henri Griset moved with his family to England in 1848. He studied for a time under the distinguished Belgian artist Louis Gallait before returning to England, where he regularly drew the animals at the London Zoological Gardens and developed the extraordinary command of animal physiognomy that became the foundation of his career.
Griset became particularly celebrated for humorous and satirical animal drawings in which elephants, monkeys, bears, lions and other creatures assume recognizably human attitudes and occupations. His animals possess expressions, personalities and social roles without becoming merely humans in animal costume.
The present drawings are particularly successful examples of this talent. Griset's elephant remains unmistakably elephantine in bulk, posture and movement, yet simultaneously becomes a prosperous Victorian gentleman taking his ease at a hotel - spectacles perched precariously upon his trunk, newspaper spread before him, glass at hand - while the diminutive monkey becomes his energetic and faintly harassed waiter.
Griset's reputation was firmly established by two celebrated illustrated books: Griset's Grotesques; or, Jokes Drawn on Wood (1867), accompanied by comic verses by Tom Hood, and his remarkable illustrated edition of Aesop's Fables (1869). He also contributed drawings to Punch, where he was briefly on the staff between 1867 and 1869, as well as to its competitor Fun.
A contemporary reviewer of Griset's Aesop's Fables perfectly captured the quality so evident in the present drawings:
“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.”
Examples of Griset's original work are today preserved in major institutional collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Smithsonian.
An exceptionally appealing group of four original Griset watercolors, all signed or initialed and preserved together as a complete comic sequence - an elephant transformed into the perfect Victorian hotel guest, without ever ceasing to be an elephant.
Price: $4,500.00