Vital Achille Raoul Barré (January 29, 1874 – May 21, 1932) was a Canadian
cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...
,
animator
An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...
of the
silent film
A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
era, and
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 ...
. Initially known as a political cartoonist, he originated the French Canadian comic strip, then crossed over into animated film and started his own studio, a pioneering effort. As a painter, he is considered an
Impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
, evoking atmosphere and light with visible, choppy strokes of paint, whose paintings are in the
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.
Personal history and career
Barré was born in
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, the only artistic child (out of twelve) of a wine merchants and importers. He studied art at the
Académie Julian
The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...
, starting in 1896, and remained there for two years also known as a
political cartoonist—he was a loud critic of the unjust trials of Captain
Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus (9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French Army officer best known for his central role in the Dreyfus affair. In 1894, Dreyfus fell victim to a judicial conspiracy that eventually sparked a major political crisis in the Fre ...
. One of Barré's opponents in the war of words and cartoons was
Émile Cohl
Émile Eugène Jean Louis Cohl (; né Courtet; 4 January 1857 – 20 January 1938) was a French caricaturist of the Incoherent Movement, cartoonist, and animator, called "The Father of the Animated Cartoon".
Biography
Émile's father, Elie, ...
, writing anonymously. On returning to Canada in 1898, he gave birth to the
French Canadian
French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...
comic strip
A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...
. It was not until 1913 that Barré succeeded in syndicating a newspaper strip in the U.S—''Noahzark Hotel'', a Sunday strip which was distributed by the
McClure Syndicate for 11 months. Barré elected not to take credit on the strip, but rather signed it VARB, his initials (Vitale Achille Raoul Barré).
Barré moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
in the United States in 1903. In 1912, Barré saw an animated film that inspired him to go into the industry (perhaps
Winsor McCay
Zenas Winsor McCay ( – July 26, 1934) was an American cartoonist and animator. He is best known for the comic strip ''Little Nemo'' (1905–1914; 1924–1927) and the animated film ''Gertie the Dinosaur'' (1914). For contractual reasons, he w ...
's "
How a Mosquito Operates
''How a Mosquito Operates'' is a 1912 silent animated short film by the American cartoonist Winsor McCay. The six-minute short depicts a giant mosquito tormenting a sleeping man. The film is one of the earliest works of animation, and its tech ...
"). He picked
Edison Studios
Edison Studios was an American film production organization, owned by companies controlled by inventor and entrepreneur, Thomas Edison. The studio made close to 1,200 films, as part of the Edison Manufacturing Company (1894–1911) and then Tho ...
to produce his cartoons and while visiting the studio, met
Bill Nolan, a live-action shorts producer who became his business and artistic partner. The two worked together for a year putting out animated and live-action commercials for various companies (quite possibly the first ever use of animation for
advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...
). It was during this period that the two worked out a system for animating which was radically different from that practiced by anyone else at the time.
Various animators had come up with different methods to keep their drawings lined up, but none of them worked very well. Barré and Nolan's solution was to punch two holes at the bottom of all of their sheets and pass them through two pegs glued to the animation table. This peg system is still in practice today. The system they used for animation, on the other hand, was a dead end precisely because it produced registration problems the peg system couldn't always fix. The basis of this "slash system" was to tear away the paper being drawn on to show the change underneath. For example, if a character was to move his arm, the first drawing would consist of character and background, then the arm would be carefully torn out to reveal the next sheet down and a new arm was drawn on the new paper revealed. The slash system lasted through the 1920s at various studios before being replaced by
Earl Hurd
Earl Hurd (September 14, 1880 – September 28, 1940) was a pioneering American animator and film director. He is noted for creating and producing the silent '' Bobby Bumps'' animated short subject series for early animation producer J.R. Bra ...
's
cel animation
Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation of the 20th century, until there was a shif ...
system.
By 1914, Barré and Nolan felt confident enough to start their own studio, totally independent of Edison and dedicated 100% to animation. This
Barré-Nolan Studio was probably the first of its kind (although
Bray Productions
Bray Productions was a pioneering American animation studio that produced several popular cartoons during the years of World War I and the early interwar era, becoming a springboard for several key animators of the 20th century, including the ...
also had a good claim to the title). The main title produced by the new studio was a series of inserts for the mostly live-action ''
Animated Grouch Chaser'' series, distributed by Edison.
In 1916,
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...
, multi-millionaire and newspaper magnate, started a rival animation studio called
International Film Service
International Film Service (IFS) was an American animation studio created to exploit the popularity of the comic strips controlled by William Randolph Hearst.
Despite their similar names "Hearst News" IFS, California, is not related to "Internati ...
and hired most of Barré's animators, including Bill Nolan, by paying them more money than Barré could provide. Barré was reduced to being a contractor for IFS, animating the series ''Phables''. After seven cartoons, he quit.
Another man who had stood up to Hearst was
Bud Fisher
Harry Conway "Bud" Fisher (April 3, 1885 – September 7, 1954) was an American cartoonist who created ''Mutt and Jeff'', the first successful daily comic strip in the United States.
Early life
Born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of a merchant, ...
, who had the courts uphold his copyright ownership to his ''
Mutt and Jeff
''Mutt and Jeff'' is a long-running and widely popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about "two mismatched wikt:tinhorn, tinhorns". It is commonly regarded as the first daily comic strip. The concept o ...
'' comic strip, which had been printed by Hearst newspapers for nine years. Fisher had turned to independent animator
Charles Bowers
Charles R. Bowers (June 6, 1887 – November 24, 1946) was an American cartoonist and slapstick comedian during the silent film and early "talkie" era. He was forgotten for decades and his name was notably absent from most histories of the Sile ...
to turn his strip into a cartoon, but Bowers did not have the facilities to pull this off. Barré had the facilities, but not the men. A partnership was born in the form of
Barré-Bowers Studios situated in the Fordham section of The Bronx. Barré did what he could to improve the quality of the animation in his films, investing some of the profits into art classes for the animators (in anticipation of
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...
providing such training to his own employees during the 1930s).
''Mutt and Jeff'' was a strong money-maker for Barré, Bowers, and Fisher, but Barré began to get tired of it all as the years passed, due to personality conflicts with both partners. Barré retired from animation in 1919, amid rumors of a nervous breakdown. He settled into his home in
Glen Cove, Long Island, and started selling his oil paintings to the public, as well as some commercial poster work. In the meantime, the surviving partners had a falling out and by 1926 ''Mutt and Jeff'' was finished as a film animation property.
In 1925, Barré came to long for the world of animation again, as a replacement for Bill Nolan since he left for the
Krazy Kat
''Krazy Kat'' (also known as ''Krazy & Ignatz'' in some reprints and compilations) is an US, American newspaper comic strip, created by cartoonist George Herriman, which ran from 1913 to 1944. It first appeared in the ''New York Journal-America ...
cartoons. He got what he wanted with the position of "guest animator" for
Pat Sullivan Productions working on ''
Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in 1919 by Otto Messmer and Pat Sullivan (film producer), Pat Sullivan during the silent film era. An anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic young black cat with white eyes, a black body, and a giant grin, ...
''. The cartoons Barré created for Sullivan are considered the best he ever did, as well as the best Felix cartoons ever made (the chicken antagonist in such cartoons as "Felix Dines and Pines" and "The Oily Bird" was drawn entirely by Barré). Raoul Barré retired from animation the second time in 1927, this time on a high note. Barré spent the last few years of his life drawing oil paintings and political cartoons, while starting his own art school.
He died in Montreal on May 21, 1932, of
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
and was buried in the city's
Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery
Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery (, ) is a rural cemetery located in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which was founded in 1854. The entrance and the grounds run along a part of Côte-des-Neiges Ro ...
.
References
Bibliography
* Donald Crafton; ''Before Mickey: The Animated Film, 1898-1928''; The University of Chicago Press; (1982, 1993)
* Leonard Maltin; ''Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons''; Penguin Books; (1980, 1987)
* Giannalberto Bendazzi (Anna Taraboletti-Segre, English translator); ''Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation''; Indiana University Press; (2001 reprint)
*Christopher Finch, ''The Art of Walt Disney'' Published by Harry N. Abrams; 1973:
External links
''In Search of Raoul Barré'' (Barré l'introuvable) by André Martin. Short monograph in English and French.
* Biography of Raoul Barré (in French), by Michel Viau: https://web.archive.org/web/20110515211358/http://www.bdquebec.qc.ca/auteurs/barre/rbarre.htm
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barre, Raoul
1874 births
1932 deaths
Canadian editorial cartoonists
Canadian comics artists
Artists from Montreal
Artists from New York City
Film producers from Quebec
Canadian animated film producers
Film directors from Montreal
Film directors from New York City
Film producers from New York (state)
Canadian animated film directors
Canadian alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts
Quebec comics
Canadian cinema pioneers
Burials at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery
Académie Julian alumni
19th-century Canadian painters
20th-century Canadian painters
Canadian landscape painters
Canadian Impressionist painters
Canadian expatriates in the United States
Canadian humorists