Once upon a time, 80 years ago there was a little elephant named Babar. Today, eight decades later, the iconic children’s character remains one of the top icons of the children’s literary market. Marking this very special birthday, the toy museum of the Musée des Arts Decorative plays host to an exhibition retracing the adventures of the world’s most celebrated elephant. Opened just in time for the holidays, the show runs through September 2, 2012.

Using a selection of drawings taken from albums and story boards, Eric Benqué, set designer for the exhibition, created a space from the physical perspective of a child. In fact, adult visitors are forced to bend down in order to closely inspect original illustrations, pages from albums and Babar objets d’art.  Throughout the exhibition, this “book space” tells the story of Babar’s life and adventures as well as the behind the scenes tales of the artist. Sketches used for the display reveal the protagonists, compositions, and drafts created by the author for each story.

Babar was born from a tale told by Cecile de Brunhoff, mother of two children, of a little elephant in a jungle who escapes to the city to hunt down the person who killed his mother. This story would have gone unnoticed; however, the children repeated it to their father, Jean de Brunhoff, a painter. Seduced by this tale, he created a watercolor album, entitled “The Story of Babar, The Little Elephant. Lucien Vogel, an editor, convinced Jean to publish his album, and thus, in 1931, De Brunhoff’s book was published by Editions du Jardin des Modes. It was an instant success, selling a million copies between 1931 and 1939. Jean created six more albums, later published by Hachette.

Upon Jean de Brunhoff’s death in 1937, his brother asked Jean’s son Laurent, then aged 12 years, to finish painting the two remaining unpublished albums of his father. After WWII, Laurent (20 years at this point) took the characters created by Jean (Babar, his wife Celeste, his cousin Arthur, an old woman, a monkey called Zephir, the matriarch elephant Cornelius and his three children Pom, Flore and Alexander), then incorporated new characters he created: Professor Grifaton, Wouli Wouli, Baron Bardula.

The two men’s styles are so similar, one could easily forget the body of artwork were created by two different individuals of different generations.  In 1985, Laurent immigrated to the United States, taking Babar with him. To date he has created 40 albums.  A taped interview of Laurent de Brunhoff from June 2011 reveals funny antidotes and secrets of the last album just released in November. However, the storybooks aren’t the only medium used to pay homage.

Also employed to tell octogenarian’s tale are TV film clips including “Babar et Les Aventures de Badou, a 3-D film featuring the elephant’s 8 year old grandson, Badou as well as toys dating as far back as 1933 and a very chic wardrobe created by France’s top designers on loan from the Musée de la Mode et des Textiles. From its story book setting to its display of stuffed animals and artifacts, L’Histoire de Babar is not only a holiday treat for kids, but is an adventure sure to appeal to children in all of us.

L’Histoire de Babar. Musee des Arts Decoratifs (Musee des Jouets) 107, rue de Rivoli. 75001. Tel : 01.44.55.57.50.  Open Tues-Sun 11-18h (Thurs until 21h) December 8, 2011 - September 2, 2012. Entrance 9 €  http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr