Two Mice beside a Piggy-bank

n.p.: , 1865. Piggy-Bank Robbers...

GRISET, Ernest. Original pen, ink and wash drawing of Two Mice beside a Piggy-bank... n.p., n.d, ca. 1865.
Signed with initials. (3 5/16 x 4 1/2 inches; 85 x 115 mm.). Image size: 1 7/8 x 2 7/8 inches; 48 x 68 mm.

A charming little watercolor depicting two white mice either side of a piggy bank with two coins on the floor.

Ernest Henri Griset (1843-1907). Born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Northern France, was a French-born painter and illustrator noted for the humorous interpretations of his subjects. Griset's parents moved to England from France in 1848. He studied for a while under the Belgian artist Louis Gallait before moving back to England, then regularly drew the animals at the London Zoo as a basis for his paintings and illustrations. He became known particularly for his humorous and satirical designs, which were best displayed in his two Christmas books, Griset's Grotesques, or Jokes Drawn on Wood (1867), which was accompanied by the comic verses of Tom Hood; and an illustrated edition of Aesop's Fables (1869). Of the latter a reviewer noted that "nothing so quaint as these illustrations has appeared since the days of Grandville... Griset possesses the faculty of investing his animals with human expression, without ever causing them to lose their own identity, and of making them funny without being ridiculous."
Many examples of Griset's work are now in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Some of his comic work appeared in Punch, where he was briefly on the staff between 1867-9, as well as in its competitor, Fun.