Jean de Brunhoff

Jean de Brunhoff

Jean de Brunhoff was born in Paris, where he died 37 years later. However, in such a short life, he had time to create and draw one of the most endearing children's characters: the Babar elephant. Brunhoff lived the horrors of World War I, after which he dedicated himself to his trade as a painter. In 1924 he married a young and cultured pianist, mother of his three children. The pianist told stories to her three children or read to them what her father wrote and drew from a distant Swiss sanatorium where she had to be admitted as a result of a serious illness. Thus was born the story of Babar that in 1931 appears as an illustrated album. Five other books emerged from his imagination before he died. Cecile, Jean's wife, pianist, to help her two children sleep - Laurent and Mathieu - invented the story of an elephant fleeing from the forest to the city to escape the hunter who killed his mother. Already in the city he dresses like a person, walks on all fours, befriends everyone until he returns - by car - to his village, where he is crowned king. That elephant is named Babar, which is the obvious result of the cross between two words - »dad» and «baby» - that correspond to the psychology of the character.