Adolphe Léon Willette (30 July 1857, Châlons-sur-Marne4 February 1926,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

) was a French painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and lithographer, as well as an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

of the famous

Moulin Rouge Moulin Rouge (, ; ) is a cabaret in Paris, on Boulevard de Clichy, at Place Blanche, the intersection of, and terminus of Rue Blanche. In 1889, the Moulin Rouge was co-founded by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Ol ...

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

. Willette ran as an " anti-semitic" candidate in the 9th arrondissement of Paris for the September 1889 legislative elections.

Biography

Willette studied for four years at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

under

Alexandre Cabanel Alexandre Cabanel (; 28 September 1823 – 23 January 1889) was a French painter. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style. He was also well known as a portrait painter. According to ''Diccionario Enciclopedi ...

. His graphical work ranged from dainty triviality or political

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

: he made

Pierrot Pierrot ( , , ) is a stock character of pantomime and '' commedia dell'arte'', whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a diminutive of ''Pi ...

an imaginary hero of France, and established Mimi Pinson as frail, lovable, and essentially good-hearted. He could also be bitter and fierce, a partisan of political ideas. The

guillotine A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at t ...

and the figure of Death appear in his caricatures. At the time of the

Dreyfus affair The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...

he was an ''anti-dreyfusard''; with Jean-Louis Forain, he moved to the political right.

Works

The artist was a prolific contributor to the French illustrated press under the pseudonyms "Cémoi", "Pierrot", "Louison", "Bébé", and "Nox", but more often under his own name. He illustrated Melandri's ''Les Pierrots'' and ''Les Giboulles d'avril'', '' Le Courrier français'', and published his own ''Pauvre Pierrot'' and other works, in which he tells his stories in scenes in the manner of Busch. He decorated several "brasseries artistiques" with wall-paintings, stained glass, and so on notably Le Chat noir and La Palette d'or, and he painted the ceiling for La Cigale music hall. Willette contributed to the Salon des Cent and six of his posters were published in '' Les Maîtres de l'Affiche''. A collection of his works was exhibited in 1888. His ''V'almy'' is in the Luxembourg, Paris. Willette's characteristically fantastic ''Parce Domine'' was commissioned by Rodolphe Salis for

Le Chat Noir Le Chat Noir (; French for "The Black Cat") was a nineteenth-century entertainment establishment, in the bohemian Montmartre district of Paris. It was opened on 18 November 1881 at 84 Boulevard de Rochechouart by the impresario Rodolphe Salis, ...

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

. It was shown in the

Franco-British Exhibition The Franco-British Exhibition was a large public fair held in London between 14 May and 31 October 1908. The exhibition attracted 8 million visitors and celebrated the Entente Cordiale signed in 1904 by the United Kingdom and France. The chief ar ...

in 1908.

Selected works

File:Alone at last2.jpg, ''Journée du

Poilu Poilu (; ) is an informal term for a late 18th century–early 20th century French infantryman, meaning, literally, ''the hairy one''. It is still widely used as a term of endearment for the French infantry of World War I. The word carries the se ...

.
25 et 26 décembre 1915'' File:1889 French election poster for antisemitic candidate Adolphe Willette.jpg, Anti-Semitic Election poster
for Willette File:Les_Maîtres_de_l'Affiche_-_43_-_Cacao_Van_Houten_(bgw20_0371).jpg, Cacao Van Houten File:Willette_A._-_lithography,_watercolor_-_Diplôme_d'abonné_fidèle_au_courrier_français_-_39,5x52,5cm.jpg, "Diploma" for a loyal subscriber to ''Le Courrier Français'' File:Unkraut,_aber_guter_Dünger.jpg, Cover of ''Le Rire Rouge''. #43 File:Willette_affiche.jpg, Poster for ''Le Courrier Français File:Cheret,_Jules_-_Exposition_de_Tableux_et_Dessins_de_A._Willete_(pl_97).jpg, Exposition of works by Willete

References

External links

Selections from ''l'Assiette au Beurre''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willette, Adolphe 1857 births 1926 deaths People from Châlons-en-Champagne 19th-century French painters French male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French caricaturists French illustrators Art Nouveau painters Art Nouveau illustrators Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery 20th-century French printmakers Moulin Rouge 19th-century French male artists