Felix Lorioux was a well known illustrator in his native France, but not as recognized here in the U.S. His fantasy filled, colorful, Art Nouveau inspired illustrations are an excellent match for the storybook subjects he took on.
They were not a good match, however, for Disney’s Mickey Mouse. His attempt to handle the French adaptations of Silly Symphonies were too stylized for Disney’s liking.
Lorioux is best known for his illustrations for children’s books by Charles Perrault. Perrault was a French author who, in the late 17th Century, took folk tales and codified them into the literary form we know today as fairy tales. His tellings of the stories of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, for example, are pretty much the ones we recognize today, not in the least because they were adapted by Disney for their film versions.
A 1927 edition of Perrault’s book Contes de Perrault (Tales of Perrault) contains Cinderella, Le Petit Pouchet (Tom Thumb) and Puss-in-Boots (images at left) illustrated by Lorioux. There is a complete scanned version of the French printing of that book available on the German site Digitale Bibliothek.
Links via BibliOdyssey (illustrated article)
What beautiful work. It interests me to know he made some attempt at working on disney’s silly symphonies series.. is any of this work available for viewing?
Mickey et Minnie was Lorioux’s first book for Disney in 1932, The Silly Symphonies series came after in 1934 L’Arche de Noe, 1935 Le Petits Lapins et les oeufs de Paques, Le Lievre et La Tortue and Les Jouets de Noel the last book for Disney. The arrangment collapsed when Disney asked Hachette to take Lorioux’s name off the last book, so Lorioux hid his initials and several other clues in the book and told Disney he would never work for him again.
For more info on Lorioux you may contact me at: mawparis@aol.com
Thanks, for the background, Michael. It’s unfortunate that there isn’t more of his work readily available for contemporary audiences.