Adolphe Léon Willette (30 July 1857 – 4 February 1926) was a French

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Abril Lamarque (1904–1999) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfre ...

, 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 Olympia (Par ...

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

. Willette ran as an "

anti-semitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

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

under

Alexandre Cabanel Alexandre Cabanel (; 28 September 1823 – 23 January 1889) was a French Painting, painter. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the Academic art, academic style. He was also well known as a portrait painter. He was Napoleon ...

. 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 exposin ...

: he made

Pierrot Pierrot ( , ; ), a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell'arte, has his origins in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a hypocorism, diminutive of ''Pierr ...

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 effectively carrying out executions by Decapitation, beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secur ...

and the figure of Death appear in his caricatures. At the time of the Dreyfus affair 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 (; French for "The Black Cat") was a 19th century entertainment establishment in the Montmartre district of Paris. It was opened on 18 November 1881 at 84 Boulevard de Rochechouart by impresario Rodolphe Salis, and closed in 1897 not long ...

Montmartre Montmartre ( , , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement of Paris, 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Rive Droite, Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for its a ...

. It was shown in the Franco-British Exhibition in 1908.

Selected works

File:Alone at last2.jpg, ''Journée du Poilu.
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