The Fox and the Turkey Hens

The Fables of La Fontaine

1733

Jean-Baptiste Oudry

(French, 1686–1755)

France, 18th century

brush and black ink and gray wash heightened with white gouache, blue ink in margin; framing lines in brown ink

Support: Blue laid paper

Image: 24 x 18.8 cm (9 7/16 x 7 3/8 in.); Sheet: 31 x 26 cm (12 3/16 x 10 1/4 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1977.93

Location: not on view

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Did You Know?

The most recent edition of La Fontaine’s Fables illustrated by Oudry was a colored version produced in 2007 by Editions Diane de Selliers.

Description

This drawing depicts a fable about turkeys whose anxieties about falling victim to a fox ultimately make them susceptible to the predator. It was one of 276 designs produced by Jean-Baptiste Oudry related to humorous but educational stories compiled by French poet Jean de La Fontaine in the later 1600s. Published in four luxurious volumes between 1755 and 1759, The Fables of La Fontaine withOudry’s illustrations was one of the most ambitious publishing projects of the artist’s time. The books were art objects meant to be collected more than read, but they were successful enough that they were reissued several times in later centuries.