Benjamin Rabier - Original Signed Plate

Benjamin RABIER (1864 - 1939), French comic strip author
Petite vitesse Original
Plate in Indian ink on paper, 35 x 26.7 cm, signed and titled "Petite vitesse", red "color" stamp at the top left, numbered 23 at the bottom of the plate. Humorous scene of a snail competing in a race, in turn, against a lizard, then a cricket and finally a rat. The snail wins each time his races helped by the fate of a wall that collapses on the lizard, an apple that falls and crushes the cricket and the storm that engulfs the rat under water. This story is reminiscent of La Fontaine's fables. Good condition Benjamin Rabier is considered one of the major animal designers of the 20th century. He is and remains famous for the creation of the logo for "The Laughing Cow" cheese, and for his emblematic character Gédéon the duck. The two great figures of comics, Walt Disney and Hergé, were inspired by his universe.