André Gill
André Gill (born October 17, 1840 in Paris , † May 1, 1885 in Charenton-le-Pont ) was a French caricaturist , draftsman and chansonnier .
Life
André Gill was born as the natural son of the Comte de Guînes and the seamstress Sylvie-Adeline Gosset on October 17, 1840 in Paris . His real name is Louis-Alexandre Gosset de Guînes, he later published his caricatures under the pseudonym André Gill . After his mother's death (the father was missing very early), he was taken in by his paternal grandfather. After a few months of military service with the 44th Line Regiment, he studied at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in Paris.
Gill started his career as a cartoonist at Le Journal amusant . He made a name for himself as the caricaturist of the Second Empire , however, with the caricatures of well-known personalities in the weekly newspaper La Lune (publisher Francis Polo) between 1865 and 1867. The representations that are still worth seeing today include pictures by Victor Hugo , Alexandre Dumas , Georges Bizet , Charles Dickens , Jules Verne , Sarah Bernhardt , Otto von Bismarck , Émile Zola and Richard Wagner . His caricatures are characterized by oversized heads and small bodies, which can sometimes be borrowed from animals or have angel wings.
After the ban on La Lune , the newspaper had come to terms with depictions of Napoleon III. Made unpopular, the caricaturist drew for the follow-up journal L'Éclipse from 1868 to 1876 . In the first year L'Éclipse was published, he was brought to court with a drawing. In the August 9, 1868 issue, Gill had under the heading Monsieur X ...? depicted a pumpkin with arms and legs , in which one believed to recognize the head of a judge. The process earned him several months in prison , in addition to the recognition of the bohemian .
During the turmoil of the Paris Commune in 1871, Gill was briefly curator of the Musée du Luxembourg . It was also during these stormy times that he illustrated the socialist newspaper La Rue , which was published by his friend Jules Vallès ( Gill also drew for his newspaper Charivari at times).
His caricatures kept coming into the focus of the censors. It is therefore not surprising that he joined the Fédération des artistes founded by Gustave Courbet (other members were Corot , Daumier and Monet ). The aim of the association was "la libre expansion de l'art, dégagé de toute tutelle gouvernementale" (the free dissemination of art, free from any form of government patronage). In 1873, with a view to the censorship, he drew L'Enterrement de la caricature (The funeral of the caricature): An artist follows a hearse carrying a dog with a pen and a brush. Another criticism of the censorship was the drawing Le journaliste et l'avenir (The journalist and the future): It depicts a journalist, tied by arms and legs, blindfolded, a feather under his arm. Gill no longer saw the lifting of censorship on July 29, 1881 in her right mind.
Although he had political ambitions, he ultimately opted for the bohemian artistic life. This eventually led to a falling out with his old friend, the journalist and writer Jules Vallès .
His last artistic station as a cartoonist was La Lune rousse , founded as the successor to L'Eclipse , for which Gill worked as editor-in-chief between 1876 and 1879.
As a chansonnier he frequented the Cabaret des Assassins on Montmartre . For this cabaret he painted a sign in 1875 that shows a rabbit that is a bit tipsy. The cabaret eventually adopted the name Au Lapin Agile (the nimble rabbit), which is a play on Lapin à Gill (the rabbit of Gill).
Soon after, in 1880, Gill fell into insanity. He finally died in 1885 in the Charenton psychiatric institution (now the Paris suburb of Saint-Maurice (Val de Marne)). His grave can be found in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris. A small cul-de-sac on Montmartre , cross street to Rue des Martyrs was named after Gill, at the end of this small street you can see a bust of him.
literature
- Ursula E. Koch , Pierre-Paul Sagave : Le Charivari. The story of a Paris daily newspaper in the struggle for the republic (1832–1882) . Verlag Leske, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-921490-29-4 , p. 398f.
Web links
- Vingt années de Paris , André Gill (French)
- André Gill (French)
- André Gill (French) ( Memento from June 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- Caricatures by André Gill
- Use caricatures by and about André Gill in HeidICON guest access
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gill, André |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Louis-Alexandre Gosset de Guînes |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French caricaturist, draftsman and chansonnier |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 17, 1840 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 1, 1885 |
| Place of death | Charenton-le-Pont |