Répertoire des pantins, M.F. 1-9

Artist Alfred Jarry (French, 1873-1907)

Publisher Mercure de France, Paris, [1898]

Printer Imprimerie E. Dupré, Paris (M. Fleurot, gr.)

Author Alfred Jarry (lyrics) (French, 1873--1907)

Author Franc-Nohain (French, 1873-1934)

Author Franc-Nohain (poetry) (French, 1873--1934)

Date[1898]

MediumOriginal prints: transfer lithographs on cream wove paper. Text: photolithography.

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss

Object number

1984.277A-I

Not on View

Label TextPierre Bonnard and Alfred Jarry, Répertoire des pantins (Puppet Repertory). Music by Claude Terrasse, Lyrics by Alfred Jarry and Franc-Nohain [1898] On Christmas Eve, 1897, the Théâtre des Pantins (Puppet Theater) opened its doors. The theater was created by artist and author Alfred Jarry, artist Pierre Bonnard, poet Franc-Nohain, and Bonnard’s brother-in-law, the composer Claude Terrasse. The opening evening ended with a raucous production of Trois chansons à la charcutière (Three Songs to the Butcher Woman). Each of the three songs, performed by puppets, revolves around humorous puns involving pork products. The theater’s undisputed hit was an adaptation of Jarry’s irreverent and crude play Ubu Roi (King Ubu), first performed in 1896. This production added several new songs, including La chanson du décervelage (The Debraining Song) that gleefully celebrates Ubu’s killing machine. The publisher Mercure de France issued the sheet music to nine songs from these productions, with original cover lithographs by Bonnard and Jarry. Each of the designs was drawn in a deliberately naïve manner, in keeping with the homespun, almost childlike quality of the productions.Published Referencescf. Cate, Phillip Dennis, et al., Prints Abound: Paris in the 1890s, from the Collections of Virginia and Ira Jackson and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000, nos. 123-131.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books from Toulouse-Lautrec to Kiefer, 1985, nos. 7-7d

Toledo Museum of Art, Splendid Pages: The Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books, Feb. 14--May 11, 2003.