Aquatint of Porter, an illustration from "Pere Ubu". Labeled Vient de Paraitre. 17¼x12¾. Matted.

Reproduction of a plate from 'Reincarnations du Pere Ubu', 1928/32. Father Ubu, the "grotesque representative of the human species" who single-handedly sums up the absurdity of existence. Colossal in his stupidity and cowardice, naive, mean and power-hungry, Ubu holds the entire world in his enormous stomach. The father of the infamous "Merde!" and the imaginary solutions of pataphysics, the specialist of "phynances" with his fondness for patois and flair for neologisms, was the laughing-stock for generations of schoolchildren before Alfred Jarry made him the leitmotif of his illustrious series of texts.