The Games and Pleasures of Childhood (1657)

Jul 14, 2015



A selection of plates from Les Jeux et Plaisirs de l'Enfance (1657) - translating as "The games and pleasures of childhood" - a series of fifty engravings depicting children playing various games. Many of the games depicted are familiar to us today, such as tennis, darts, and "blind man's buff", but many are more unusual. One titled "Le jeu de pet en gueule" (literally translating as "The game of fart in the face") seems to involve just what it says on the tin, in addition to some secondary racing element. Another simply titled "Bataille" (battle) seems to be akin to one massive free-for-all punch-up.
The images were made by the French female engraver Claudine Bouzonnet-Stella (1636-1697) after initial studies by her uncle Jacques Stella (1596-1657), whom she studied under and whose workshop she came to work for along with her two sisters and her brother. After the death of her uncle in 1657, Claudine took charge of the workshop at the age of twenty-one, receiving exclusive rights to publish prints based on her uncle's designs. The same year saw the publication of Les Jeux et Plaisirs de l'Enfance.