[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES" BY C. M. GERE (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN. 1893)]
[Illustration: THE SINGING LESSON No. 1. FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAWING BY A. NOBODY]
Prince of all foreign illustrators for babyland is M. Boutet de Monvel, whose works deserve an exhaustive monograph. Although comparatively few of his books are really well known in England, "Little Folks" contains a goodly number of his designs. La Fontaine's "Fables" (an English edition of which is published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) is (so far as I have discovered) the only important volume reprinted with English text. Possibly his "Jeanne d'Arc" ought not to be named among children's books, yet the exquisite drawing of its children and the unique splendour the artist has imparted to simple colour-printing, endear it to little ones no less than adults. But it would be absurd to suppose that readers of THE STUDIO do not know this masterpiece of its class, a book no artistic household can possibly afford to be without. Earlier books by M. de Monvel, which show him in his most engaging mood (the mood in the illustration from "Little Folks" here reproduced), are "Vieilles Chansons et Rondes," by Ch. M. Widor, "La Civilité Puérile et Honnête," and "Chansons de France pour les Petits Français." Despite their entirely different characterisation of the child, and a much stronger grasp of the principles of decorative composition, these delightful designs are more nearly akin to those of Miss Kate Greenaway than are any others published in Europe or America. Yet M. de Monvel is not only absolutely French in his types and costumes but in the movement and expression of his serious little people, who play with a certain demure gaiety that those who have watched French children in the Gardens of the Luxembourg or Tuileries, or a French seaside resort, know to be absolutely truthful. For the Gallic _bébé_ certainly seems less "rampageous" than the English urchin. A certain daintiness of movement and timidity in the boys especially adds a grace of its own to the games of French children which is not without its peculiar charm. This is singularly well caught in M. de Monvel's delicious drawings, where naïvely symmetrical arrangement and a most admirable simplicity of colour are combined. Indeed, of all non-English artists who address the little people, he alone has the inmost secret of combining realistic drawing with sumptuous effects in conventional decoration.