Georges Bigot

Cover picture of the sixth edition of Tôbaé , 1887

Cartoon about the dispute between China, Japan and Russia over Korea, published in the first edition of Tôbaé , 1887

Georges Ferdinand Bigot (born April 7, 1860 in Paris , † October 10, 1927 in Bièvres , Essonne ) was a French caricaturist and illustrator . Together with Charles Wirgman , he was responsible for promoting European-style caricatures in Japan .

biography

At the age of twelve, Bigot was able to attend the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1872 . He later learned painting under Jean-Léon Gérôme and Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran . He published his first illustration in 1880 in the magazine La Vie Moderne .

In 1882 he came to Japan as a journalist, where he also became an art teacher for a military school and married a former geisha . In 1887 he founded a French-language satirical magazine , Tôbaé (from 鳥羽 絵 , Toba-e , satirical images of the Edo period ) in Yokohama , which appeared every two weeks for a foreign readership. In it he mostly illustrated scenes from everyday Japanese life, but also caricatured the Japanese society and government of the Meiji period , which often caused him trouble with Japanese authorities. During the First Sino-Japanese War , he also resumed his journalistic activities. His work in Japan, where he also wrote his name as 美好 ( bikō ), is considered his best known.

In 1900 Bigot returned to France and worked there for magazines such as Le Chat Noir , Le Rire and Le Gil Blas Illustré . He used caricatures to comment on the Second Boer War and the Russo-Japanese War, among other things . When he finally went from Paris to Bièvres, he published less often.

In 1911 he brought out a comic for the first time in the magazine L'Epatant , then finally turned back to the illustrations that he made for Les Romans Militaires and La Baionette .

Web links

Commons : Georges Ferdinand Bigot  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• George Bigot at lambiek.net (English)
• Article at artelino

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Frederik L. Schodt: Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics . Kodansha America, 1983, ISBN 0-87011-752-1 , p. 40.
2. ↑ Sepp Linhart : "Cute Japanese" or Yellow Danger? Western war postcards 1900–1945 . Lit Verlag, Münster and Vienna 2005. ISBN 3-8258-8655-7 . P. 7.
3. ↑ The history of comics at SPIEGEL Wissen  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.