Mammiferes B Pour Tous 1
Buy this print on Etsy →A gloriously detailed encyclopedia page brought to life, this is Adolphe Millot's 'Mammifères' (Mammals) plate from the famous French reference 'Larousse pour Tous.' On a single warm sheet, dozens of beautifully painted animals are arranged from top to bottom - orangutan, gibbon, baboon and lemurs among the branches; hyena, wolf and fox; the great cats (lion, cheetah, panther, tiger and lynx); civet, skunk, mongoose, marten and coati; brown bear and polar bear; otter and manatee; and, along the bottom, the giants of the sea - a whale, a dolphin, a seal, a walrus and a sea lion. It is natural history as a feast for the eyes.
Adolphe Millot (1857-1921) was the star illustrator of the Larousse dictionaries, and plates like this one made him a household name in France. Trained as a painter of flowers and insects at the natural-history museum in Paris, he had a rare gift for combining strict scientific accuracy with real artistry, so that every creature is both correctly observed and full of life. Generations of French schoolchildren learned the animal kingdom from his pages, and today those same encyclopedic charts have become some of the most sought-after of all vintage prints.
Part of the magic is the density and order of it: the eye wanders happily from species to species, each neatly labelled in French, the whole page reading like a treasure map of the animal world. It carries all the romance of old classroom charts and dusty reference books - learning as a thing of beauty.
As wall art it is a fantastic conversation piece. The rich colours and busy, cabinet-of-curiosities feel make it perfect for a study, home office or library, a child's room or playroom, a kitchen or a gallery wall of natural-history prints. It is a wonderful gift for animal lovers, teachers, students, scientists and anyone charmed by vintage educational illustration, and it pairs beautifully with botanical, bird and other Millot plates.
Because the original was published in the early twentieth century and Millot's work is now in the public domain, we are able to reproduce it at full museum quality.
Each print is produced on premium 189 gsm museum-grade archival matte paper, faithfully capturing the fine detail, warm colours and antique paper tone of the original plate - ready to frame and enjoy for years to come.
