"The Child of Good Breeding" from The Complete Works of Béranger
Medium
Wood engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 8 5/8 × 5 1/2 in. (21.9 × 14 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection. The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
Accession Number
59.500.687(57)
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
"The Child of Good Breeding" is a wood engraving created in 1836 for an illustrated edition of *The Complete Works of Béranger*. This print belongs to a collaborative project involving illustrator J. J. Grandville, engraver John Thompson, and publisher Fournier & Perrotin. Pierre-Jean de Béranger, the celebrated French songwriter whose verses it accompanies, was renowned for his witty, often satirical chansons that captured the spirit of post-revolutionary France. Wood engraving, a technique that rose to prominence in the 1830s, allowed artists to produce finely detailed images that could be printed alongside text in affordable books. Grandville’s distinctive style—marked by lively caricature and expressive figures—brought visual humor to Béranger’s verses, making the edition both literary and visual entertainment for a growing middle-class readership. Now part of the Metropolitan Museum’s Elisha Whittelsey Collection, this modest sheet (roughly the size of a page in a small volume) offers a glimpse into the vibrant world of nineteenth-century French book illustration and the enduring appeal of Béranger’s songs.
About the Artist
John Thompson|J. J. Grandville|Pierre Jean de Béranger|Fournier & Perrotin (French|British|French|French) · 1803 |1785 |1780 | –1847 |1866 |1857 |
French, Nancy 1803–1847 Vanves|British, Manchester 1785–1866 London|French, Paris 1780–1857 Paris|French