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‘Les Metamorphoses du Jour, No.48’, 1829-1830

© 2021 Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Description

Mounted coloured lithograph, entitled ‘Les Métamorphoses du Jour, No. 48’, designed by Jean-Ignac Isidore Gerard (pseudonym “Grandville”), lithographed by Langlumé, and published by Bulla and Martinet in 1829-1830.

Anthropomorphism, by which animals and inanimate objects are given human form and characteristics, is a device widely used in caricature. While some of the most direct caricatures are those which simply substitute animals for humans, adding humour to apparently conventional scenes, the artist Grandville’s caricatures conveyed more complex ideas through anthropomorphism.

In his ‘Les Métamorphoses du Jour’ caricatures, Grandville produced a series of images which develop the use of animal form to convey through characterisation particular aspects of human folly, weakness and corruption.

In ‘Les Metamorphoses du Jour, No. 48’, a woman with donkey’s head dressed as a female servant and a boy with dog’s head are standing in a grocer’s shop. Mistaking the grocers for a pharmacy, she asks the