• The Cicada and the Ant - Fontaine - Literary Fable Poster, framed poster in an elegant interior, dried grasses and a rattan c
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  • The Cicada and the Ant - Fontaine - Literary Fable Poster, framed poster in a Parisian Haussmann living room
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  • The Cicada and the Ant - Fontaine - Literary Fable Poster, framed poster on a light wall
  • The Cicada and the Ant - Fontaine - Literary Fable Poster, the print alone, thick matte eco-friendly paper
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The Cicada and the Ant - Fontaine - Literary Fable Poster

The Cicada and the Ant - Fontaine - Literary Fable Poster

€35,00 EUR
€35,00 EUR
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Free shipping on orders over €50
  • Poster created in France
  • 100% eco-friendly paper100% eco-friendly paper
  • Printed and shipped from a studio near you : most orders arrive in 3 to 5 business daysDelivery within 3 to 4 business days.

"The Cicada, having sung all summer long, found herself in great need when the north wind came."

Context of the work

The first fable in La Fontaine's very first collection (1668), it contrasts the carefree attitude of the cicada, who sang without preparing for winter, with the foresight of the ant, who refuses to lend to her. A text learned by generations of French schoolchildren, with a deliberately ambiguous moral.

What is the moral of "The Cicada and the Ant"?

The fable contrasts carelessness (the cicada who sang all summer without preparing for winter) with the ant's foresight. La Fontaine deliberately leaves the moral ambiguous: the reader may judge the ant as avaricious as she is wise.

Which format to choose for this "The Cicada and the Ant" poster?

This "The Cicada and the Ant" poster is available in 30 x 40 cm, 40 x 50 cm, and 50 x 70 cm. The 30 x 40 cm is suitable for a hallway, office, or gallery wall; the 50 x 70 cm stands alone above a sofa or bed. The frame is not included; the formats are standard and can be found commercially.

Gift idea for a child learning classics, an adult nostalgic for school, or any lover of timeless French literature.

Features and formats

Available formats: 30 x 40 cm, 40 x 50 cm, 50 x 70 cm
Paper: thick eco-friendly matte paper
Printing: high resolution, colorfast over time
Frame: not included
Printing medium: poster, art print on matte paper
Theme: quote, poetry
Average observed delivery times: 3 business days, careful packaging

When to give this print

The grasshopper and the ant, the first fable French children learn by heart : a much-loved teacher gift, at the end of the school year or for Christmas, alone or as a class group gift. It also suits a child's bedroom or a classroom wall.

Posters sold individually

These posters need to be framed by you :)
We choose standard formats that are easy to frame!

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Close-up of the grain of our thick eco-friendly matte 170 gsm paper
The paper grain, up close.

Heure d'été Editions

Beautiful words deserve beautiful paper

These verses are set to be hung: a chosen typeface, measured margins, white space worked around the text. It is this layout that makes you want to read them again.

The paper is an uncoated matte 170 gsm. Its surface stays slightly fibrous, the ink sinks in, the light spreads across it. You read it the way you read a book.

It is eco-friendly paper from sustainably managed forests, and printed as close to you as possible to shorten transport.

Hanging a poem is not the same as reading it once. The text stays there, you catch two lines in passing, and the day pauses for a second. It is a moment you give yourself, and offer to those who live with you.

There is a quiet pleasure in living with French literature in the original. The poem keeps the language it was written in, and with it the sound the writer chose, which no translation quite carries over. On an English-speaking wall it stops being decoration and becomes something with a little cachet: a piece of France you can read on your way past, every morning.

It earns the large format. At 50x70 cm the text is read from across the room, and the page holds a wall the way a painting does.

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