''La Caricature'' was a satirical journal that was published in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, France, between 1880 and 1904. It had a lively and colorful layout, and made full use of the newly invented
photogravure
Photogravure (in French ''héliogravure'') is a process for printing photographs, also sometimes used for reproductive intaglio printmaking. It is a photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is grained (adding a pattern to the plate) and ...
technology. Its focus was on social satire rather than political commentary. ''La Caricature'' covered the theater, news events, gossip and topical subjects such as the vote for women or seaside vacations. The founding editor,
Albert Robida
Albert Robida (14 May 1848 – 11 October 1926) was a French illustrator, etcher, lithographer, caricaturist, and novelist. He edited and published '' La Caricature'' magazine for 12 years. Through the 1880s, he wrote an acclaimed trilogy of fut ...
, left in 1892. The journal began to decline in quality, went through various changes of ownership and management, and eventually was merged with a rival tabloid.
Foundation
''La Caricature'' was published weekly between 1880 and 1904, first by Librairie illustrée, then by Eugene Kolb and finally by Fayard frères. The founding editor was Albert Robida (1848–1926). The new journal had a lively and colorful format, exploiting the recently invented
photogravure
Photogravure (in French ''héliogravure'') is a process for printing photographs, also sometimes used for reproductive intaglio printmaking. It is a photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is grained (adding a pattern to the plate) and ...
technique. The title recalled the earlier
''La Caricature'' (1830–1843) founded by
Charles Philipon
Charles Philipon (19 April 1800 – 25 January 1861) was a French lithographer, caricaturist and journalist. He was the founder and director of the satirical political journals '' La Caricature'' and of ''Le Charivari''.
Early life
Cha ...
, which portrayed
Louis Philippe
Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France.
As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary War ...
as a pear, and which included works by the great
Honoré Daumier
Honoré-Victorin Daumier (; February 26, 1808February 10, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second N ...
. The new ''Caricature'' was less politically engaged than its predecessor, focusing more on caricature of the manners of the age.
Robida period
The first issue appeared on 3 January 1880, heralding a break from the oppressive morality of the regime that had followed the fall of the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...
in 1871. However, ''La Caricature'' appeared before the act of 29 July 1881 gave much greater freedom to the press. The masthead of ''La Caricature'' was classic in design, at first showing Albert Robida as editor, and ''La Librairie illustrée'' as publisher. The offices were 7 rue du Croissant, the same premises as ''La Librairie illustrée'', in the heart of the press district of Paris. The journal appeared every Friday.
With eight pages of drawings, and little text, ''La Caricature'' gave stories in pictures without captions, silhouettes, portraits and large compositions, including all forms of caricature at the time. It covered news, literature, theater and gossip, but generally avoided political comment. It often made fun of
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...
,
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...
and
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, also , ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of ...
. In May 1880 ''La Caricature'' published a cartoon of Sarah Bernhardt's planned trip to the USA, making fun of her thin figure, her grandiose opinion of her importance, and the public view of her epic battles with adversity. The paper caricatured the
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
exhibitions, fashion and horse racing. It was common for an issue to be devoted to one topic such as women's emancipation, sea bathing or a visit to a château.
The 25 October 1883 issue was devoted to ''La Guerre au vingtième siècle'' (''War in the 20th Century''). It shows a war fought in 1975 between
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
using every possible weapon. Robida borrowed ideas from
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
. Unlike Verne he was unconcerned with whether his machines could really work, purely interested in the image. In other futuristic illustrated stories Robida depicted many grotesque types of mechanical transport, including submarine pleasure boats, as well as television news, video phones, excursions to the moon and synthetic food. Other whimsical concepts of his prosperous world of the future included air taxis, transatlantic balloons, aerial hotels, underwater sports and a women-only stock exchange.
![L’embellissement de Paris par le métropolitain - par A](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/L%E2%80%99embellissement_de_Paris_par_le_m%C3%A9tropolitain_-_par_A._Robida%2C_La_Caricature%2C_no_338%2C_19_juin_1886.jpg)
Robida was ambivalent about modernization. His drawing of ''The Embellishment of Paris by the Metro'' appeared on the 19 June 1886 cover. Robida depicts Paris as a woman, her crown adorned with the windmills that had once stood on the hills of the city, violated by a network of railways that run over or through famous structures of the city.
Robida used color boldly, in contrast to other journals of the time. ''La Caricature'' gave good coverage to theater in the early years, typically focusing on one production. This was not advertising. The journal did not produce posters for the shows, but gave pictures that captured the mood of the shows in exaggerated form, with critical comment written in a satirical vein. The large theatrical pictures drawn by Robida mainly appeared in the first three years. They were revived in 1897 when the journal was under new management, now drawn by Maurice Radiguet.
The work of young artists such as
Ferdinand Bac
Ferdinand-Sigismond Bach, known as Ferdinand Bac, (15 August 1859, Stuttgart, Germany - 18 November 1952, Compiegne, France) was a German-French cartoonist, artist and writer, son of an illegitimate nephew of the Emperor Napoleon. As a young man, h ...
,
Caran d'Ache
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, italic=unset, translit=karandash mean ...
and Louis Morin was published in ''La Caricature''. The cartoonist
Draner (Jules Jean Georges Renard; 1833–1926) contributed illustrations, including most of the military items and also caricatures of sportsmen, domestic servants in large houses and people wearing the ridiculous fashions of past periods, such as the days of Louis Philippe. The cartoonist
Job
Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contr ...
(Jacques Onfroy de Bréville; 1858–1931) also contributed cartoons, depicting horses and small scenes of gallantry.
Later years
On 2 July 1892, with issue 653, Robida retired after twelve years as editor and Eugene Kolb became the head of ''La Caricature''. With Robida's departure the journal lost some of its graphic appeal, and became more clichéd. On 5 September 1896 Kolb's name was dropped from the masthead of issue 871, which now simply said "weekly journal". In January 1897 the journal was sold to the ''Librairie Fayard'', and ''Fayard frères'' began to appear on the masthead.
On 23 January 1893 the office moved to 78 boulevard St Michel, in the premises of the ''Librairie Dentu''. B. Roussat became the manager. Soon after ''La Caricature'' abandoned photogravure for halftone etching. There were repeated changes of manager. The paper began to adopt a more strident and populist tone. On 31 December 1904 the last issue of ''La Caricature'' announced its merger with ''L’Indiscret'', a black and white tabloid that gave more images than ''La Caracature'' but lower quality.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Caricature, La
1880 establishments in France
1904 disestablishments in France
Caricature
Defunct magazines published in France
French-language magazines
Satirical magazines published in France
Magazines established in 1880
Magazines disestablished in 1904
Magazines published in Paris