NEW YORK — One might think that Laurent de Brunhoff, a man who has spent almost his entire life drawing a family of elephants in children's books, might be more comfortable naming the colors in a Crayola 64-pack than discussing the brush strokes of the world's most respected painters.
But you'd be wrong.
In fact, it would be hard to find a greater aficionado of fine art, and de Brunhoff, in his latest book featuring Babar, Celeste and their children, shares this love with his young fans.
"Babar's Museum of Art" (Abrams) chronicles the creation of an art museum in the fictional city of Celesteville. A former train station eventually is filled with artwork that looks incredibly similar to famous pieces by Georges Seurat, Henri Rousseau and Leonardo da Vinci, among others. The main difference in these paintings is that elephants instead of people are the featured subjects.
"I did this really for my own pleasure," de Brunhoff explains. "It's my own museum. These are the paintings I've loved most of my whole life and now I'm making my humble copies."
He adds: "I didn't think for a second to do a book to help children understand art, but I do also hope it will help children understand art."
An aspiring artist for as long as he can remember, de Brunhoff spent a lot of time during his childhood at the Louvre Museum in Paris. (De Brunhoff's father, Jean, was the original illustrator of the Babar books, but de Brunhoff picked up the paintbrush less that 10 years after his father's death in 1937.)
That luxury of leisurely afternoons examining — and getting excited about — works of art is something many of today's children don't have. A class trip to a museum doesn't usually allow youngsters the time to go off on their own and decipher the fascinating background details found in Pieter Brueghel's paintings, de Brunhoff says.
To do much of the research for this book, de Brunhoff returned to his habit of spending hours at the museum, this time at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, located just a few blocks from his home and studio. Sure, viewing the collections was both enjoyable and helpful, he explains, but the best part was seeing the sparkle in the eyes of the child who occasionally made that personal connection to a piece of art.
The Metropolitan actively courts young visitors and one of the highlights of the museum's annual schedule is its family benefit, says Kristin MacDonald, deputy chief development officer for events. One night each winter, the entire first floor of the museum becomes the backdrop for a scavenger hunt in which children, even toddlers, search for art and artifacts.
"It's a way to make the museum non-threatening and put it in a non-imposing light. It doesn't compromise the integrity of the museum or the collections but it's much more attractive to children when there are miniature tables and we have ice cream, too," says MacDonald.
"We hope the kids will have a wonderful time and be excited about the museum and that they'll want to come back."
And, she adds, it also is exciting to see parents experience the museum and fall in love with fine art all over again through their children's eyes.
De Brunhoff says because his book is about youngsters — er, young elephants — who are just beginning to explore the world of oils, canvases, clays and metals, he, too, was able to feed off their enthusiasm and intensity.
"Babar's Museum of Art" took longer to do than any of the scores of other Babar books. "The other ones (books) are more from the imagination, but this was a labor of love and I wanted it to be just right," he says. "I was a little sad when it was done because I had been so totally involved."
There are some paintings, though, that de Brunhoff personally admires but he had to leave out of the book because he couldn't figure out how to incorporate the elephants.
Impressionists such as Henri Matisse and Pierre-Auguste Renoir used a light-brush technique that didn't lend itself to the definitive lines and primary colors that are as much a part of Babar as his three-piece suit and crown, and de Brunhoff purposely avoided religious art to keep his audience broad and to respect the sacredness of the themes and people featured in those works. Some people, including his brother who is a monk, might be offended by seeing an important religious figure depicted as an elephant, de Brunhoff says. "I didn't want to shock or offend anybody with my re-creations."
However, de Brunhoff encourages children to use pencils, markers, paints and crayons to allow their own creativity to flow and not be restricted by anyone else's standards.
In the words of wise old Babar: "It (art) doesn't have to be or mean anything. There are no rules to tell us what art is."