id:			166623
accession number:	2008.345
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.345
updated:		2022-03-23 09:01:06.954000

An Insect Ball, 1835. Jean-Jacques Grandville (French, 1803-1847). Pen and black ink with watercolor; sheet: 12.5 x 21.3 cm (4 15/16 x 8 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.345

title:				An Insect Ball
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1835
creation date earliest:		1835
creation date latest:		1835
current location:		
creditline:			Bequest of Muriel Butkin
copyright:			

---

culture:	France, 19th century
technique:	pen and black ink with watercolor
department:	Drawings
collection:	Drawings
type:		Drawing
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

---

CREATORS

* Jean-Jacques Grandville (French, 1803-1847)  - artist

---

measurements: Sheet: 12.5 x 21.3 cm (4 15/16 x 8 3/8 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:

	description:	beige wove paper
	watermarks:	

inscriptions:

	inscription:	signed, lower left, in black ink: J. J. Grandville 1835; verso, upper right, in graphite: No 33 [underlined]; upper right, in graphite: 8
	translation:	
	remark:		

---

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin
	opening date:   2001-08-26T00:00:00
	<i>French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002).

---

LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* 

---

PROVENANCE

	[Sotheby-Parke-Bernet, London (4 December 1975), no. 390, repr.]. [Paris art market]; [Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, Munich]; purchased in 1977.
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


---

fun fact: 


digital description: 


wall description: 
J.-J. Grandville became best known for fantastical drawings like this one, in which insects act like humans. Here, smaller creatures above use flowers or leaves as musical instruments, and their larger counterparts below dance a galop. An Insect Ball was one of more than 50 drawings that the artist made for wood-engraved reproduction in Le Magasin pittoresque (The Picturesque Store), a popular encyclopedic review edited by Grandville's friend Edouard Charton. In text printed below the wood-engraved version of An Insect Ball, Grandville explained that his aim was to show insects with the same humorous personalities seen at any human ball, while also rendering their forms with scientific accuracy.
---

RELATED WORKS

---

CITATIONS

	Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. <em>French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin</em>. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.
	page number: 	Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 30, p. 70-71
	url:		

---

IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.345/2008.345_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.345/2008.345_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.345/2008.345_full.tif