J. J. Grandville (1803–1847), Les métamorphoses du jour , Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987 , PML 140303
Schoolchildren and Teacher
This hand-colored book was the publication that brought the French caricaturist J. J. Grandville to prominence. The seventy scenes of humans with animal faces playing out scenes from Parisian middle-class life highlight society's absurdities. Here the parrot children, who are meant to demonstrate their rote learning of verbs, respond to their donkey teacher, his nose buried in the book, with a cheeky reply: "we are tired; you tire us."