posted on 09 Jan 2025

When Pierrot Was Young by Alexander Dumas, illustrated by Peter Farmer

As we move out of the Christmas period and, mercifully, leave behind the pantomime season, it’s easy to forget that there was a time when pantomime was more than the crass knockabout that it’s evolved into in modern times. I’m indebted to Wikipedia for this succinct description of its origins:

"Pantomime has a long theatrical history in Western culture dating back to the era of classical theatre. It developed partly from the 16th century commedia dell'arte tradition of Italy and other European and British stage traditions, such as 17th-century masques and music hall. "

Central to both pantomime and the commedia dell’arte tradition were the stock characters of Harlequin, Columbine and Pierrot – with the latter being the pale-faced, lovelorn clown who ends with a broken heart.

Prolific French author, Alexander Dumas (1802 – 1870) – familiar now to most of us as the author of The Three Musketeers – took some time out of his novel writing labours to amuse himself by authoring in 1853 a fairy story of sorts for younger readers that creates an alternative origin story for Pierrot and tells us of his early years.

Dumas makes Pierrot something of a magical, fantastical character: discovered by an honest woodcutter and his wife in a snow drift, the young Pierrot proves to have a huge appetite for food and a capacity for self-promotion. He contrives to impress the King of Bohemia, rises to be the most influential courtier and inevitably attracts enemies keen to bring him down. 

I’ll leave you to find out for yourselves how he overcomes all these trials and tribulations because, to be honest, I found Dumas’ story only of secondary interest to me. What really grabbed my attention were the illustrations by Peter Farmer.

This copy was published in 1975 by Oxford University Press and Farmer’s colour palette is pure mid-70s stuff – heavily reminiscent of the likes of Brian Wildsmith at his peak. But who is Peter Farmer? I have to admit, it’s not a name I was at all familiar with and it’s not terribly easy to find other books he has illustrated but it’s clear from other material on the internet that his focus of attention and his best work was done in the field of stage and set design. Once you know this and that he was renowned for his work on a whole series of classical ballets, the illustrative style and character realisation in this book becomes entirely understandable. 

The characters are given a mythical reality – at once dramatic, colourful and dynamic. The colour grades from subtle to loud in an instant and these are not drawings or paintings that labour on detail but which depend on the broad brush. These are illustrations that are all about immediate impact and they fit the dramatic origins of the subject matter – Farmer was at home with the theatre and Pierrot is very much a creature of the theatre.

Dumas clearly set out to have some fun with this book for younger readers – even kidding on at the beginning that this was a story created by one of the Musketeers – Artemis – himself. I think it might feel a little dated for younger readers now and it would struggle perhaps to find an audience but if you’re a fan of brilliant 1970s book illustration, it’s a must have for this rather rare example of Peter Farmer’s work.

I am pretty sure the book has long been out of print but, astonishingly, copies can be found on the online second-hand market for well under £10. A bargain.

 

Terry Potter

January 2025