Laurent de Brunhoff died on Friday at his home in Key West, Florida. He was 98 years old. The cause was complications from a stroke, said his wife, Phyllis Rose.
Laurent de Brunhoff is dead. Dad created Babar for him, then he took over the character
“Babar was born one night in 1930 in a leafy suburb of Paris. Laurent (then 5 years old) and his brother Mathieu (4 years old) were having trouble sleeping. Their mother, Cécile de Brunhoff, a pianist and music teacher, began to tell a story about an orphaned baby elephant who escapes from the jungle and flees to the conveniently located city of Paris. The boys were delighted with this story and in the morning they ran to tell their father, Jean de Brunhoff, an artist, about it; he took up the story and began to sketch a baby elephant, which he named Babar, and describe his adventures” – Penelope Green in the New York Times. The first book was published in 1931, but after publishing several more, six years later, Jean de Brunhoff died. Then Laurent de Brunhoff took over the series.
After the war, Laurent de Brunhoff studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière under the guidance of the painter Othon Friesz. However, he still remembered the story about the elephant and decided to continue his father’s work. He learned to paint in his style. His first book about Babar was published in 1946, when Laurent was 21 years old. The artist subsequently published over forty-five more of Babar’s books. The elephant’s stories have also been adapted to the screen. De Brunhoff also created children’s books with characters of his own creation, including: Bonhomme and Serafina.
Source: Gazeta
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