LAURENT DE BRUNHOFF. Sketch for the garden of the

LAURENT DE BRUNHOFF.Sketch for the garden of the castle. Sketch for Le Chateau de Babar [Babar's Castle, trans.], (Paris: Hachette, 1961). Pen, ink, and graphite on paper. 270x460 mm; 10¾x18 inches. Signed in full, lower left image. Framed to 18¼x22¼ inches. Provenance: Mary Ryan Gallery; private collection, New York City.A lively, large, and full study featuring all the major characters, including Babar, Celeste, The Old Lady, and Zephir the monkey in the foreground, as Pom and Alexander play by the house in the background. The actively worked composition reveals one of the children originally leaning over the fountain's edge, directly behind Babar. It appears in a more edited version in the book.Le Chateau de Babar, the 9th book in the famed series, was translated by de Brunhoff and published a year later in America by Random House under its English title Babar's Castle.