Fables by Antoine Houdar de La Motte

Fables nouvelles, Paris, Grégoire Dupuis

Copper-engraved illustrations by Claude Gillot (1673-1722)

XI-I-036

Origin: Charles Nodier, George de Macartney collection, 1854

Hostile to imitations of Aesop or La Fontaine and resolutely modern, Houdar de La Motte (1672 – 1731) created new fables.

His collection is above all celebrated as “ the first illustrated book of the 18th century”, thanks to the beautiful etchings by Gillot, Watteau’s master. The volume was enriched before 1820 with more than 100 original red chalk drawings, their second proofs and their initial engravings, with a view to a new illustrated edition in duodecimo format, which was never published.