3-028-554 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"A Game of Fox and Geese," by B. Riviere, 1870. 'We doubt not that so shrewd an observer of animal character as the artist here represents nothing more than is to be credited to the cunning of the fox and the equally proverbial foolishness of the goose. Monsieur Reynard has ventured from his hole...although no source of danger is discernible along the wide horizon, he is cautious, for it is daylight, and geese have wings, if no brains; whilst the hunger which thins his flanks only serves to sharpen his wits; so he stretches himself at full-length, still as death, cunningly calculating that foolish curiosity will tempt the geese within easy reach...As with all tribes of geese, human or feathered, one bolder, though otherwise not sillier, leads the rest into the trap. And how capitally the artist has caught the ludicrous aspect and gestures of those foolish creatures - the fatuous importance of their waddle; their craning necks...turning first one eye to inquire, and then trying for a new view, with heads perched to bring to bear the other eye! We presume that apple sauce or stuffing does not enter into the vulpine bill of fare; therefore nothing will be wanting to the rich and ample meal which Monsieur Reynard's sagacity has secured for him'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.