Léon Choubrac (17 November 1847 – 5 April 1885), who sometimes signed his drawings with Hope, Beraldi, ''Les graveurs du 19e siècle''
p.14
/ref> was a French poster designer and illustrator based in Paris. With his younger brother

Alfred Choubrac Alfred Choubrac (30 December 1853 – 25 July 1902) was a French painter, illustrator, draughtsman, poster artist and costume designer. Together with Jules Chéret he is considered to be one of the pioneers of the modern coloured and illustrate ...

, Léon was trained as a classical artist with the painters Charles Doërr and

Isidore Pils Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils (1815–1875) was a French academic painter of religious and military subjects. Biography Pils was born in Paris as the son of a soldier François Pils. At the age of twelve, he studied with Guillaume Guillon-Le ...

at the École des Beaux Arts. The Choubrac brothers came very soon to the poster, practicing since 1875 the modern treatment of colors and typography, associated with images thanks to

chromolithography Chromolithography is a method for making multi-colour printmaking, prints in lithography, and in theory includes all types of lithography that are printed in colour. However, in modern usage it is normally restricted to 19th-century works, and ...

. In the early 1870s, the Choubrac brothers and

Jules Chéret Jules Chéret (31 May 1836 – 23 September 1932) was a French painter and lithographer who became a master of ''Belle Époque'' poster art. He has been called the father of the modern poster. Early life and career Born in Paris to a poor bu ...

(known as "the father of the modern poster") reduced the cost of colour lithography introducing technical advances. Additionally, in 1881 restrictions on bill-posting (''affichage'') were lifted and eased state control of the media in France.Verhagen, ''The poster in Fin-de-Siècle Paris''
p. 107
/ref>Carter, Karen L. (2010).
Unfit for public display: female sexuality and the censorship of fin‐de‐siècle publicity posters
', Early Popular Visual Culture, 8:2, 107-124 In 1884, the Paris city council started to rent out surfaces belonging to the municipality, paving the way for a rapid increase in the production and distribution of advertising posters. Posters with clear colours and dashing images appeared all over town during the vibrant spirit of the

Belle Époque The Belle Époque () or La Belle Époque () was a period of French and European history that began after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and continued until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Fr ...

. Léon Choubrac drew some posters that higher authorities seized or torn down, amongst others one that showed a woman tortured in the presence of the

Pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

, advertising a book by Léo Taxil and Karl Milo, ''Les Maîtresses du Pape'' (The Pope's Mistresses) (1884). Another poster, ''The secret loves of Pius IX'', showed the portrait of Pope

Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

below a series of portraits with heads of young women. The censor made him add a beard to the head of the Pope to disguise it. The poster nevertheless caused a scandal and was torn down by order of the French Minister of the Interior François Allain-Targé. Beraldi, ''Les graveurs du 19e siècle''
p.16
/ref> Léon and Alfred created the ''Ateliers Choubrac''.Ateliers Choubrac

Bibliothèque Nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

(BNF) As an illustrator, he sometimes collaborated with his brother in '' Gil Blas'' or the satirical weekly '' Le Courrier français'', among others. Choubrac illustrated several works by

Emile Zola Emile or Émile may refer to: * Émile (novel) (1827), autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life * Emile, Canadian film made in 2003 by Carl Bessai * '' Emile: or, On Education'' (1762) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a treatise o ...

. Although Leon died young at the age of 37 in 1885,''La Lanterne'', 8 April 1885
/ref> his brother Alfred went on to produce an impressive number of posters for Parisian entertainers, theatres, businesses and various commercial products. Maindron, ''Les affiches Illustrées (1886–1895)'', p. 51-55Hiatt, ''Picture Posters''
Chapter 5
/ref> The poster collector Ernest Maindron, who wrote the first essay about the illustrated poster in the '' Gazette des Beaux-Arts'' in 1884, and later published the first book on the subject (''Les Affiches Illustrees'') in 1886, mentioned the Choubrac brothers, along with and Chéret, among the pioneers of the illustrated poster.Maindron, ''Les affiches Illustrées (1886-1895)'', p.23; 51-55

Selected works

File:Les Maîtresses du Pape Choubrac Léon (1847-1885).jpg, Woman tortured in the presence of the Pope, advertising a book by Léo Taxil and Karl Milo, ''Les Maîtresses du Pape'' (The Pope's Mistresses) (1884) File:Alcazar_d'hiver-1882.jpg, Poster for '' Alcazar d'Hiver'' (1882) File:Cr%C3%A8me_Liebig_poster_Choubrac.jpg, Advertising poster of ''Crème Liebig'' File:Le Dernier jour de la Commune by Léon Choubrac 1883.jpeg, Advertising poster for a Panorama about the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...

(1883)

References

Sources

* Beraldi, Henri (1886).
Les graveurs du 19e siècle; guide de l'amateur d'estampes modernes
', Paris: L. Conquet * Hiatt, Charles (1896).
Picture Posters
', London/New York: George Bell & Sons, MacMillan & Co. * Maindron, Ernest (1896).
Les affiches Illustrées (1886-1895)
', Paris: G. Boudet * Verhagen, Marcus, ''The poster in Fin-de-Siècle Paris: "That Mobile and Degenerate Art"'', in: Charney, Leo & Vanessa R. Schwartz (eds.) (1995).
Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life
', Berkeley (CA): University of California Press,

External links

*
Léon Choubrac (1847-1885)
BnF Data {{DEFAULTSORT:Choubrac, Leon French poster artists French illustrators 1847 births 1885 deaths