Bébé Fabulist, 1910

File — Box: CFC Postcards Box 1

Identifier: CFC2018.0312.1-5

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Carlson Fable Collection is a gathering of primary fable materials at Reinert Alumni Memorial Library at Creighton University. It grew out of the personal collection of fable materials gathered by Rev. Gregory Carlson, S.J. and was given to the Creighton Libraries in 1996. There are more than 10,000 books and approximately 8,000 artifacts in the collection.

From plates to stamps, from cards to whiskey decanters, from toys to posters, you'll find just about anything you can imagine here. Please explore all that is to offer here in my fables Catalogue of Objects.

This is the largest online catalog of fable related objects on the internet. Many are from Aesop's Fables but you will find La Fontaine, Velazquez and Krylov also represented in this collection.

Dates

1910

Extent

5 Cards : Five cards titled "Bébé Fabulist." Papier Gulleminot. Série n. 704. "Clayette Phot." Each card's black-and-white picture-side features two portions. On the white portion, perhaps a quarter of the card, is a three or four line segment in sequence of La Fontaine's FC. The rest of this side of the card is a photograph composed of a rectangular section (generally a cloud-like backdrop of black and white) and a section including a portion of a circle. The young girl is in this enlarged, circular portion.

Language of Materials

French

Additional Description

Abstract

I would guess that there is an experiment in the use of photography going on here. The experiment would seem to be this: can a good photographer show the course of a fable by the facial expressions of a clever young actress? The answer here has plenty of "yes," since the girl is both photogenic and expressive. The five pictures seem to me to follow well La Fontaine's fable's pattern: first distance on the part of the crow; then interest; then sheer joy over the flattery; then perhaps the fox's joy over outwitting the crow; and finally the crow's resolve--"but a little late," La Fontaine comments--not to be duped again. The child here is a gifted photographic subject.