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Francisque Poulbot
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Born in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, 1879; died in Paris, 1946.
In his drawings, water-colors, book illustrations and posters, Poulbot celebrated the everyday pleasures and sorrows of the lower and bohemian classes of Paris, and especially the simple inhabitants of Montmartre.
His subject matter, with its emphasis on shopgirls, prostitutes, barflies, tenement dwellers and street eccentrics, forms a striking parallel with the work that the German artist Heinrich Zille was doing in the Berlin slums in the same period. The similarity is particularly evident in their love for children; waifs and urchins of the kind immortalized by the French artist are still sometimes spoken of as les petits poulbots.
Illustrations by Poulbot appeared in Le Rire, Gil Blas, Le Sourire, La Baionnette,and L'Assiette au Beurre. Poulbot also published collections of his more successful illustrations in two books. He also contributed drawings for posters, many of which are still well-known today.
On the whole Poulbot’s work is endearing and charming, but like almost all French material published during the Great War itself, they were extremely patriotic and at times savagely and insultingly denigrating to anything remotely connected to 'Teutonic' culture or the German population in any way at all. Even German children are portrayed as being vile and despicable.
Today Poulbot is best remembered for his less bellicose cartoons and drawings. For instance his image of a French girl laying flowers on a German grave is still widely reproduced in many modern history books as being representative of Poulbot's work. Such sentiment is not always illustrative of Poulbot’s work as he was a patriotic Frenchman first and foremost and was want to give the French public what they wanted to see during war-time.
History has shown that Poulbot’s renditions of the 'street urchins' of Paris were well intentioned and whether illustrating children playing at mock war, or echoing the grave and important mutterings of their parents, Poulbot created a timeless depiction of childhood.
Source:
-Appelbaum, Stanley: French Satirical Drawings from L'Assiette au Beurre. Dover, 1978.
-Bailly-Herzberg « Dictionnaire De L'estampe En France 1830 – 1950 » Paris, 1985.
-Monod L.H., Aide-mémoire de l'amateur et du professionnel, 8 vol., 1920-1931.
-Groetschel Y., Payen-Appenzeller P., Poulbot et Montmartre, cat. expo., n° spécial de Paris aux cent villages, 1979.
-Schurr, Gérald: Les Petits Maîtres de la peinture 1820-1920, valeur de demain, t. Vil, Les Éditions de l'Amateur, Paris 1989.
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