Jean de Brunhoff Biography Quotes 1 Report mistakes

Early Life
Jean de Brunhoff was born on December 9, 1899, in Paris, France, into a cultured, middle-class family. His father, Maurice de Brunhoff, worked in publishing, and his elder brother, Michel de Brunhoff, would later become the influential editor of Vogue Paris. Growing up in a city alive with artistic experimentation helped shape Jean's visual sensibilities from an early age.

Education and Early Career
As a young man, de Brunhoff briefly served near the end of World War I before returning to Paris to study art. He trained as a painter in the early 1920s, working in studios associated with the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and absorbing lessons from modern French painting, delicate line, clear color, and strong compositional design, that would later inform his book illustrations. He exhibited modestly and painted, but it was as an illustrator and storyteller that he found his defining voice.

Marriage and Family
In the mid-1920s, de Brunhoff married Cécile Sabouraud, a talented pianist. They had three sons, Laurent (born 1925), Mathieu, and Thierry. Cécile's keen artistic sense and gift for storytelling were central to the family's creative life; the bedtime tales she told their children directly sparked the literary and artistic project that would make Jean famous.

The Birth of Babar
In 1930, Cécile improvised a bedtime story about a young elephant who leaves the forest, discovers the city, and returns to lead his community with wisdom and style. Jean, captivated by the narrative and his sons' delight, elaborated the tale in text and watercolor. He insisted that early editions acknowledge the origin of the story with a credit to Cécile.

Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant (The Story of Babar) appeared in 1931 in Paris. Its large-format pages, airy layouts, hand-lettered text, and lucid watercolors were strikingly modern. The book's success led quickly to sequels, Le Voyage de Babar (1932) and Le Roi Babar (Babar the King, 1933), followed by A.B.C. de Babar (1934) and Babar et Zéphir (1936). After de Brunhoff's death, Babar en famille (Babar and His Children, 1938) appeared posthumously from material he had completed.

Artistic Style and Themes
De Brunhoff's art blends the clarity of French modernism with the intimacy of the picture-book form. He used clean, rhythmic line and washes of watercolor to create spaces that feel both sophisticated and tender. His layouts integrate image and text on the same page, guiding a child's eye through the story without sacrificing design.

Babar's world echoes Parisian bourgeois life between the wars, tailored suits, town planning, cafés, and orderly civic rituals, transposed into an elephant society. The books are playful and affectionate, but they also carry the confidence of modern design and the belief that art, civility, and education can improve everyday life. Later critics have debated the series' relationship to colonial-era attitudes, an ongoing discussion that underscores the cultural imprint and complexity of the books, yet de Brunhoff's immediate aim was a charming, humane narrative rooted in family storytelling.

Publication and Reception
The early Babar books were published in Paris and rapidly translated, reaching readers in Europe and North America by the mid-1930s. The large album format, elegant pacing, and cosmopolitan tone made the series distinctive. Jean's brother Michel, then a leading figure at Vogue Paris, helped foster connections within the Condé Nast milieu that supported the books' production and promotion. Reviewers praised the balance of gentle humor, adventure, and refined artistry; libraries and families embraced Babar as both modern and timeless.

Illness and Death
In the mid-1930s, de Brunhoff's health deteriorated due to tuberculosis. He sought treatment in the Swiss Alps, where the climate was considered beneficial. He died on October 16, 1937, in Montana, in the Swiss canton of Valais, at the age of 37. He left behind a young family and a body of work that had already reshaped the possibilities of the picture book.

Legacy
Jean de Brunhoff created the template for the modern European picture-book album: large-scale pages, harmonious type-and-image integration, and stories whose visual elegance invites repeated reading. After his death, his eldest son, Laurent de Brunhoff, who had watched his father work as a child, continued the series from the late 1940s, preserving the palette, pacing, and character of Babar while expanding the elephant's world for new generations.

The Babar books have since been translated into many languages and adapted across media, including animated films and television series. Exhibitions of de Brunhoff's original watercolors reveal their subtle color and inventive composition, and scholars of children's literature continue to study the books' design, narrative voice, and cultural context. Through Babar, Jean de Brunhoff helped define a century of picture-book artistry, uniting refined visual craft with the warmth of a family story first told at bedtime.

Selected Works by Jean de Brunhoff
- Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant (1931)
- Le Voyage de Babar (1932)
- Le Roi Babar (1933)
- A.B.C. de Babar (1934)
- Babar et Zéphir (1936)
- Babar en famille (published posthumously, 1938)

People Around Him
- Cécile de Brunhoff (née Sabouraud): his wife, whose bedtime story inspired Babar.
- Laurent de Brunhoff: eldest son, later the continuing author-illustrator of the Babar series.
- Mathieu and Thierry de Brunhoff: sons; Thierry became a noted pianist.
- Michel de Brunhoff: elder brother, editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, who supported and promoted the books within Paris's publishing circles.
- Maurice de Brunhoff: his father, active in publishing and part of the family milieu that valued literature and art.

Our collection contains 1 quotes who is written by Jean, under the main topic Mother.

• Books with Babar the elephant: The Story of Babar; The Travels of Babar; Babar the King; Babar and Father Christmas
• Babar the elephant controversy: Criticized for colonialist/imperialist overtones and class themes
• TV shows with Babar the Elephant: Babar (1989–1991); Babar and the Adventures of Badou (2010–2015)
• Jean de Brunhoff elephant: Creator of Babar the Elephant
• Cécile de Brunhoff: Jean’s wife; originated the Babar bedtime story
• Jean de Brunhoff Books: The Story of Babar; The Travels of Babar; Babar the King; Babar and Zephir; Babar’s ABC; Babar and Father Christmas
• Laurent de Brunhoff: Jean’s son; continued the Babar books (1925–2024)
• How old was Jean de Brunhoff? He became 37 years old

• 1933 King Babar (Children's book)
• 1932 The Travels of Babar (Children's book)
• 1931 The Story of Babar (Children's book)

• Wikipedia