Exhibit conjures ‘Little Prince’ book memories

SOUTHWEST HARBOR – “The Little Prince,” the French classic by Antoine de Saint-ExupTry, never has failed to find fans in each new generation of readers. The only thing that has faded over the years are the illustrations. But Harcourt, the book’s American publisher since the first edition appeared in 1943, has restored the original artwork, giving its new printing the look of a Ted Turner colorized movie.

They also commissioned a new translation of the text from Richard Howard, an eminent poet and translator who won the American Book Award in 1984 for his English rendering of Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal.”

In comparing Howard’s version of “The Little Prince” with that of Katherine Woods, I’m not sure significant advances have been made. The changes are often subtle: Howard’s “Draw me a sheep…” vs. Woods’ “Draw me a sheep!” Is there an ellipsis or an exclamation point in the original French? The next sentence in the text illustrates the extent of the revision: “I leaped up as if I had been struck by lightning,” translates Howard, while Woods chose a different weather phenomenon: “I jumped to my feet, completely thunderstruck.”

It is perhaps unfair to judge the new translation by these examples, but my point stands: Woods’ “Little Prince” remains a perfectly suitable translation. I would underscore this claim by suggesting that one listen to Richard Burton narrate her version of the story on the Grammy Award-winning audiocassette produced in 1993, on the 50th anniversary of the book’s publication.

I had forgotten that the illustrations for “The Little Prince” were the work of the author and how delightful they are. Since exhibitions of original artwork for children’s books became popular about 20 years ago, I have found myself looking at these images in a different manner, as a collector and coveter.

This may be your reaction viewing “The Pictures Behind the Stories” at the Wendell Gilley

Museum in Southwest Harbor. A trio of curators – Roc Caivano, Kate Briggs and Gilley director Nina Gormley – successfully solicited some of Maine’s finest artist-illustrators. While their work is not for sale (to my knowledge) it can’t hurt to imagine, say, an original study for Robert McCloskey’s “Make Way for Ducklings” in one’s living room.

Displaying illustrations from children’s books and honoring them as works of art, has grown as a practice in Maine in the past 10 years. The Farnsworth Art Museum offered “The Stories They Tell: Children’s Book Illustrations from Maine” several years ago, and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and the Ethel H. Blum Gallery at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor have presented exhibitions devoted to, respectively, the work of Barbara Cooney and Ashley Bryan. One hopes that the coming Dahlov Ipcar retrospective at the Portland Museum of Art will not overlook her illustrations.

Ipcar and Bryan join McCloskey and six others in the Gilley show. Ipcar always has been fascinated with patterns and camouflage, which she highlights in the watercolor “Jungle River.” Bryan’s creatures are equally engaging, be they ostrich chicks or the marvelous elephant from his “ABC of African-American Poetry.” Bryan and Ipcar might be descendants of the 19th century American painter Edward Hicks, whose many versions of “The Peaceable Kingdom” envisioned a world where animals of every stripe get along.

Creatures abound throughout the exhibition, from Trina Schart Hyman’s nicely rendered lobster ridden by a fairy to Glen Rounds’ calligraphic ink study on rice paper of an otter. Amy Lowry Poole’s grasshopper is magically surreal, while John Wallner’s wild animals are woven in delicate watercolor and pencil into ecological friezes that recall Jan Brett’s complex illustrations.

I have never been overly fond of the illustrations of the prolific Gail Gibbons, finding them clean and precise yet rather flat and inexpressive. Certainly her puffins don’t hold a candle to those by Alek Kardas in Jane Weinberger’s “Wee Peter Puffin” (the originals for this book were exhibited at the Gilley Museum in 1991). Alexandra Wallner’s art also seems somewhat overstylized, but I can understand how her farm animals would appeal to a young reader.

And it is young readers that make a children’s book’s reputation. So who am I to make judgments, having gained adulthood 25 some odd years ago? As Saint-ExupTry wrote in “The Little Prince,” “Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is exhausting for children to have to provide explanations over and over again.”

“The Pictures Behind the Stories” runs through this Saturday. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tues-Sat. Call 244-7555 to confirm dates and times.