Early life
Jean Ignace Isadore Gerard Grandville, more commonly known as J.J Grandville was an artist born in Nancy in northeastern France in 1803. His family was very artistic and theatrical, so when Grainville was young his father taught him how to paint. He was also very skilled at wood engraving. The name Grandville was the stage name of Jean Ignace’s grandfather. When Grandville was 21, he moved to Paris and published a collection of lithographs called “Les Tribulations de la petite proprieté” and soon after published, “Les Plaisirs de toutdge, and La Sibylle des salons”. After that, he started illustrating for numerous periodicals in France. When censorship for caricature in literature was lifted J.J. Grainville turned to book illustration.
His work
His work was unique because of its satirical and unrestrained nature. Lots of his illustrations were humans with animal faces. These drawings were extremely popular because of how human-like features of the animal faces were. “Metamorphose” is a series of 70 drawings that makes fun of the Paris middle class, he did this by drawing his signature style of human-like animals wearing human clothes. The series was his first claim to fame. He went on to create and illustrate a book entitled Les Fleurs Animées. One of his most famous pieces from the book is called Un Autre Monde. His work was very influential to the 20th-century surrealist artists and writers although his style was wildly copied over the years
Later life
Grandville‘s personal life was very sad, as he lost his wife and later his three sons all died under the age of five. He remarried and had a fourth son, but unfortunately went crazy and died at the age of 43. He never knew how influential his work would be.
Sorces
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2010.J_J_Grandville
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG29591
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Ignace_Isidore_Gérard_Grandville
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/grandville-visions-and-dreams