Caran d'Ache

For the company, see Caran d'Ache (company).

Caran d'Ache
File:Carandache 1890.jpg Photographed 1890 by Atelier Nadar
Born	Emmanuel Poiré (1858-11-06)6 November 1858 Moscow, Russian Empire
Died	Paris, France
Nationality	French

Caran d'Ache was the pseudonym of the 19th century French satirist and political cartoonist Emmanuel Poiré (6 November 1858 – 25 February 1909). The pseudonym comes from Russian: карандаш meaning "pencil". While his first work glorified the Napoleonic era, he went on to create "stories without words" and as a contributor to newspapers such as the Le Figaro, he is sometimes hailed as one of the precursors of comic strips. The Swiss art products company Caran d'Ache is named after him.

Biography

Born in Moscow, 6 November 1858, he was the grandson of an Officer-Grenadier in Napoleon's Grande Armée who, wounded during the Battle of Borodino, had stayed behind in Russia. After his grandfather's death he was adopted by a Polish family whose daughter he later married.

In 1877 Caran d'Ache emigrated to France where he took French citizenship and joined the Army for five years where he was assigned to design uniforms for the ministry of war and where he also contributed to their journal, La Vie militaire, with satirical illustrations, among them some caricatures of the German army.

In 1898 he co-founded the satirical, anti-Dreyfusard weekly magazine Psst… ! along with fellow artist and designer Jean-Louis Forain. The magazine lasted 85 issues and was made up entirely of editorial cartoons by Caran d'Ache and Forain, caricaturing society and its scandals from an antisemitic, pro-Army viewpoint.

He died in Paris on 25 February 1909 at the age of 50.

Works

Caran d'Ache's most famous cartoon. The Dreyfus Affair divided the whole of French society. Here, Caran d'Ache depicts a fictional family dinner. At the top, somebody remarks "Above all, let's not discuss the Dreyfus Affair!". At the bottom, the family is fighting and the caption reads, "They discussed it."

Much of his work was contributed to La Vie Parisienne, Le Figaro illustré, La Caricature, and Le Chat Noir. He also issued various albums of sketches and posters, some listed below. and illustrated a good many books, notably Benardaky's Prince Kozakokoff.

• 1880: His first drawings of military caricatures were published in La Chronique Parisienne.
• 1892: Caran d'Ache published Carnet de Chèques ("Checkbook") on the Panama Canal Affair.
• 1895: He started publishing editorial cartoons (every Monday) in the daily Le Figaro, and soon thereafter for the popular weekly Le Rire.
• A poster for an «Exposition Russe» in Paris was published in Les Maîtres de l'Affiche.
• 1898: Caran d'Ache published the cartoon Un diner en famille ("A Family Dinner"), highlighting the intense disagreements in French society regarding the Dreyfus Affair. It appeared a month after Émile Zola's famous J'Accuse, which inflamed and hardened opinion on both sides.

External links

• Caran d'Ache biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia