Carle Vernet (1758-1835) - INCUNABULA OF LITHOGRAPHY G. Engelmann - The Stag - Fable

Antoine Charles Horace Vernet aka. Carle Vernet (14 August 1758 – 17 November 1836) was a French painter, the youngest child of Claude Joseph Vernet, and the father of Horace Vernet.

Issued in the series Fables of Fontaine (1818). 

FROM THE FIRST BOOK IN FRANCE TO USE LITHOGRAPHY FOR ITS ILLUSTRATION.

Lithographs in crayon manier by G. Engelmann.

Engelmann is largely credited with bringing lithography to France, and later, commercializing chromolithography.

“A Stag, drinking from a crystal spring, saw himself mirrored in the clear water. He greatly admired the graceful arch of his antlers, but he was very much ashamed of his spindling legs. "How can it be," he sighed, "that I should be cursed with such legs when I have so magnificent a crown."