French ladies and rats

I purchased 3 postcards for myself in remembrance of Rose and to help myself get over missing her emails and letters.  It's been 2 months since she died and life moves on, only it's smaller now and I miss the highs of opening the mailbox and finding something from her...

So I paid three strangers to send me something, 3 gorgeous postcards.  I didn't open them right away, I'm going to savour them on days when I need a little pick-me-up.  Like yesterday.  

This card was purchased on eBay and is called "Un Jour Maigre" and is dated 1906.  What an interesting scene of rats eating mussels, crab and lobster!

The title translates as a lean day, meaning a day of abstinence, or a day when eating meat is forbidden.  But these little guys are feasting on shellfish, so I imagine there's a story being told here in regards to fasting days and Christianity.  

The artist is Leontine Malbet and I was curious about her.  I discovered she was a painter in France, her full name being Aurelie Leontine Malbet (1868-1906).  And it turns out she also shared a fascination with rats and mice!  These are the images I found online:

What can I say?  Very cool!  Why would a French lady of that time paint rats and mice?  Paris of course is teaming with rats so she may have had some life models to study (although she seems to make her critters all white).  

These next three all appeared in the weekly magazine France Illustrée.  Again I'm sure there's some social commentary attached to these images.

November 19, 1898

May 13,1893 and January 16 1892

I love this next one.  The artist's talent is clear, with the lovely grapes and peaches, and then there are two rats.  Why would you paint this?  I would love to know!  And who would hang it on their wall (besides me)?  

I also really like this one.  Again, the lovely, ripe peaches, they look delicious... and mice!  Lots of mice, enjoying the spilt cream?  I wish I had a better picture of this, to see the wee mice in more detail.  This image makes it clear that the critters in the other paintings and drawings are rats, these wee guys are darn cute mice.  

So, how does a person go about finding out if any other of Aurelie Leontine Malbet rodent paintings were published as postcards?  If there's one...???  

I'd love to hear from you if you have any insight!

And again, thank you Rose.

Lost and found

I lost my good friend.  Rose died earlier this month and you may recall her name appearing on this blog from time to time, usually thanking her for sending a particularly awesome postcard.  Now she's gone and my world is so much smaller.  She was a fountain of information and I loved to send her articles about antique cards which we could discuss.

Along with Steiff bears, bat conservation and Krampus stories we enjoyed the back and forth of letter writing (online and real letters)... and she could find the best rat postcards!

In her honour and memory, I will share a few of the postcards she sent me, beginning with this gorgeous pair of Hingre images:

I believe it was two years ago that Rose sent me these two roses, with rats!  How lovely, I was thrilled!  They're dated around 1910-1920 and the images are by a famous French artist Louis Theophile Hingre, known more I think for his bronze figures (some of those are also rats).  

Examining the cards in detail, I noticed on the back it states "Serie 1011-1015 Souris et Fleurs".  Oh?!  That means there are 5 postcards in the series, right?  So I began to hunt!  I found two more images and promptly bought those cards:

Aren't they lovely!!  I know they are "souris" but I'd say they are more rat-like than mice.  So, out there somewhere there is a fifth card... I have not been able to locate it, nor have I been able to even find a picture of what the card might look like.  I have seen another Hingre rat card:

but it's not of this "Souris et Fleurs" series.

  Rose directed me to online resources where I might be able to find the fifth card's image but, my, that's a full time job!  Maybe next winter...

  If anyone knows this series or has a lead they'd like to share with me, please do!!

Thank you, Rose, as always.

UPDATE:  JULY 14, 2025

I am thrilled to share with you the 5th card in this series!  I found it on eBay and here it is:  

Finally!  And completely by chance!  I was looking for a book for my sister to give as a gift and thought to search for the card, and there it was!  Actually, two vendors were selling the same image, isn't that odd?  Of course I purchased one.

I'm sure Rose had a hand in this.  Thank you, old friend.