André Hellé (1871-1945), real name d’André Laclôtre, was a French cartoonist, lithographer, author & book illustrator and toy maker.
Most of all, I love his illustrations of animals from children’s book, Noah’s Ark (L’arche de Noé) originally published in 1911. In the same year, he also made toy figures of the ark and animals for which he won the la médaille d’or et le diplôme d’honneur from la Société d’encouragement à l’art et à l’industrie (The Society for the Encouragement of Art and Industry).
He illustrated and did the libretto for the original score of La Boîte à Joujoux, a children’s opera by Claude Debussy.
Many 1st editions and reprints of the books André Hellé wrote and illustrated are available from AbeBooks and Amazon.
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