Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College

The Human Comedy: Chronicles of 19th-Century France

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Les enfants terribles

LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES The forty-nine prints in Gavarni’s series Les enfants terribles are among his most popular and well-known works, legendary for their witty and memorable captions. Gavarni’s enfants terribles are social landmines, “holy terrors” who wittingly or unwittingly reveal the pettiness and duplicity of their parents. An illustrator of children’s books, Gavarni was the father of two children of his own, to whom he was very attached. Gavarni loved the spontaneous poses and gestures of children and admired them for their disarming honesty. The term enfants terribles, originally reserved for terrifyingly candid children who embarrass their parents, came to be used to describe unconven-tional or unorthodox artists and writers—like Baudelaire and Flaubert—whose works reveal harsh truths about society that are embarrassing to guardians of the status quo.


  1. Oh ! C'est vrai !

    Paul Gavarni (French, 1804–1866) Oh! c'est vrai ! t'as les yeux comme les lanternes de ton cabriolet... (Oh! It’s true! You r…

  2. Petit Chérubin

    Paul Gavarni (French, 1804–1866) Petit Chérubin, j'ai apporté du bonbon pour vous... (Little cherub, I brought some candy for…

  3. Un Enfant terrible...

    Paul Gavarni (French, 1804–1866) Un Enfant terrible... (An unruly child...), mid-19th century Lithograph Gift of Eugene L. Garba…

  4. Maman a écrit à mosieu

    Paul Gavarni (French, 1804–1866) Maman a écrit à mosieu Prosper et papa a vu la lettre... (Mom wrote to Mr. Prosper and dad sa…

  5. Papa, voilà ton homme de paille

    Paul Gavarni (French, 1804–1866) Papa, voilà ton homme de paille ! (Papa, your straw man is here...), 1842 Lithograph Gift of E…