Albert Guillaume (14 February 1873 – 10 August 1942) was a French painter and
caricaturist
A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures.
List of caricaturists
* Abed Abdi (born 1942)
* Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003)
* Alex Gard (1900–1948)
* Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977)
* Alfred Grévin (1827–1892)
* Alf ...
.
Born in Paris, France, Albert Guillaume became a leading caricaturist during the
Belle Époque
The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (; French for "Beautiful Epoch") is a period of French and European history, usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era ...
. While remembered for his
poster
A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...
art, Guillaume also did oil paintings such as "Soirée parisienne," a portrait of Parisian dinner society. He created theater posters as well as advertising posters that were greatly influenced by the work of one of the preeminent poster painters,
Jules Chéret.
Poster art
Guillaume thrived during the international poster mania of the
Gay Nineties. During this period, a collection of notable artists helped transform the boulevards of Paris into a gallery of fine art.
Toulouse-Lautrec set the stage in 1891 with his famous poster, ''Moulin Rouge''. Other fine art posters followed and the streets came alive with color. Posters soon appeared from many of the era's great masters. Artists such as
Chéret,
Livemont,
Hermann-Paul and
Mucha
Mucha (; Czech and Slovak feminine: Muchová) is a Slavic surname, derived from ''mucha'', meaning " fly".''Dictionary of American Family Names''"Mucha Family History" Oxford University Press, 2013. Retrieved on 4 January 2016. Mucha is the standa ...
helped shape the Parisian landscape.
Jules Chéret is often called the "father of the modern poster." From 1895 until 1900, he collaborated with the era's great poster artists to produce a series of smaller works suitable for collectors. For six years, Chéret and his collaborators painstakingly reproduced four posters a month. The series was a smashing success. The
Maîtres de l'Affiche ("Masters of Posters") collection included the two works below and it was through this series that he became known to a wider audience. The collection remains popular to this day.
Les Maîtres de l'Affiche
''Maîtres de l'Affiche'' (Masters of the Poster) refers to 256 color lithographic plates used to create an art publication during the Belle Époque in Paris, France. The collection, reproduced from the original works of ninety-seven artists in a ...
>
Maîtres de l'affiche V 1 - Pl 30 - Guillaume.jpg, Poster 30
Maîtres de l'affiche V 4 - Pl 163 - Guillaume.jpg, Poster 16
Guillaume is also known for satirical drawings that were published in Parisian humor magazines such as ''
''. These magazines appeared as Parisians started to acquire an increased appetite for arts, culture and politics. Guillaume lampooned the foibles of French society at a time when French governance was frequently characterized by corruption and mismanagement.
in Paris, Guillaume had many of his illustrations published in albums by such firms as "Ernest Maindron" and "Librairie illustrée, J. Tallandier" including three albums of military cartoons with the preface for the 1896 edition written by