Babar's New Green Suit · Histoire de Babar · Jean de Brunhoff Babar Print

Babar's New Green Suit - a plate from Jean de Brunhoff's Histoire de Babar, 1931.

Printed from the 1931 first edition, with the white of the page left open around the drawing.

Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant, published in Paris in 1931, is the first Babar book: the little elephant runs from the hunter to the city, is befriended by the Old Lady, buys himself a green suit, learns his lessons, and returns to the great forest to be crowned king. Many of its drawings sit on the open white page with no frame or background, which gives the book its light, airy look.

Jean de Brunhoff (1899-1937) was a Paris painter who invented Babar from a bedtime story his wife Cécile told their two young sons. He painted the first book, Histoire de Babar, in 1931, and six more followed, the last two published after his death at 37. Printed large, in the generous album format he chose, with his own handwriting in place of type, they became some of the best-loved picture books ever made.

Taken from a high-resolution scan of an original page, cleaned of dust and scanning marks but otherwise left as Brunhoff made it. Printed on archival cotton-fibre paper when your order is placed, and mounted with a border of equal width on every side so the plate sits centred in the frame.