The Illustrators of Montmartre/Chapter 2
II
CARAN D’ACHE
EMMANUEL POIRÉ, better known by his Russian pseudonym of Caran d’Ache (pencil), is a public benefactor, in that he a has considerably added to the gaiety of nations ; and if it be true that one laughs and grows fat, then he must also be responsible for much of the extra weight that those nations carry with them.
The man upon whom one may count to make one merry is sure to be popular, Caran d’Ache, as we have already hinted, has made whole nations merry, and he is a popular favourite, It is true that sometimes his own infectious laughter is cynical, or spiteful, or cruel to a minority, but he always has the majority to laugh with him, and fellow him in his pictured tirades—be they well-considered or ill-considered. But, after all, that is perhaps a matter of politics, or nationality, or religion, or what not; and the fact remains that his drawings are irresistibly humorous, and are always excellent works of art.
Caran d'Ache was born in Moscow, of French parents, but when twenty years of age he came to Paris, where his innate talent soon evinced itself.
While undergoing his military service in the early eighties his unquenchable passion for drawing was put by the authorities to their practical use, in making studies of past and current military uniforms for the War Office. The costumes of the glorious Napoleonic era and of Germany were made a speciality, and the knowledge thus acquired was carefully retained by the young artist, and served him in good stead in his later years.
Caran d'Ache, like every thorough-going Frenchman, preserves his love for the army, incidents in whose life he is never tired of depicting with that spirited brilliance we have come to know so well. And the military officer's smartness of bearing has stuck to him, for he is recognised as an "ultra chic" a very dandy among the illustrators, and an eccentric one at that. Yet at the same time he refuses to associate himself with the smart set in Paris; he has too much of the artist temperament for that.
He was early attracted to the "Chat Noir" on the Butte of Montmartre, and Rudolph Salis — that keen exploiter or genial art patron, which you will — was not long in appreciating the talent of his client. Soon we hear of him achieving an artistic triumph with his astoundingly perfect shadow pantomime, "L'Epopée", at the little "Chat Noir" Theatre. Caran d'Ache had spared no trouble to make his silhouettes and the effects in which they were set as perfect as possible. No greater pains could have been taken preliminary to the painting of a series of Salon pictures; and he reaped fame as his reward,
"L'Epopée" dealt with Napoleon's succession of military triumphs. Opportunity was thus early given to M, Poiré to display his astonishing knowledge of the horse in all its varied attitudes.
The horse he delights and excels in is a magnificent, proud, high-mettled beast, whom he puts at some breakneck charge, or causes to career about in high-strung excitement. Caran d'Ache's army horses are not surpassed even by those of such acknowledged masters as Meissonier and Détaille. The Studio published some splendid equine studies of his a year or so ago, which must-have been a revelation to those who had previously looked on Caran d'Ache as a comic artist and nothing more.
His drawings have been produced in innumerable papers, magazines, and books, and are for ever being re-reproduced abroad. Collections of his caricatures have been published as "L' Album Caran-d'-Ache," "Bric-a-Brac,'" "Le Carnet de Cheques,' "La Comédie du Jour," Les Courses dans l'Antiquité," "Fantaisies," "Galérie Comique," "Les Peintres chez-eux," apart from his illustrations to "C'est à prendre ou à laisser," "Prince Kozakokoff," "Malbrough," &c. More recently "L' Album "published a selection of his works, including some drawings done in a bolder style than that which he generally produces fer reproduction, — such are the Battery of Dreadnoughts, bold and grim, and the splendid Chargé. In the drawing of himself there is a good specimen of these caricature portraits for which he is so renowned.
His work appeared in the pages of Tout Paris, La Vie Moderne, La Revue Illustrée, and Le Chat Noir, &c.; superb military sketches came out in La Caricature; and every week he carries on a running fire of pencilled commentary in Le Journal, and Le Figaro, contributing at the same time to Le Canard Sauvage, and Le Rire. A special number of the latter paper entitled Tactique et Stratégie consisted of a short serics of vigorous military cartoons, representing various epochs, drawn on a large scale, and some of them reproduced in colours.
However, it is by his stories without words that Caran d'Ache has attracted most attention, and, it must be confessed, they are simply captivating. Comic stories have been told by the same: means in Germany for half a century or more, but Caran d'Ache is credited with having introduced the progressive drawing into France.
Caran d'Ache's little tales need not a syllable of explanation, All is told by the subtlest of alterations in the expressions on the faces of his figures, in the movements of their bodies, or of other animated or inanimate bodies; there is never any mistaking the gist of a Caran d'Ache story. His attention
to detail is marvellous, yet everything takes its right place, and the venue is never confused.
Nothing could better than — say — the set of thirty-eight drawings entitled "M. Toutbeau catches the 5.17 a.m. Express." We trace the dear, fat old fellow through all his agony. He is asleep. He wakes in a perspiration of fright — ten to five — on with them — that accursed tight boot — almost forgot to wash — tie — good gracious, seven to — hallo, there goes a button — "Palsembleu!" — 5 o'clock — hair done — now for my coat---I shall never do it! And so on, through all the terrors of hasty packing, ringings for the servant, getting, discussing and paying the hotel bill — umbrella left behind and recovered at the last moment — the dash into a crawling cab — and then Mr. Toutbeau is seen beaming in his first-class railway carriage.
Who does not know the Great Expectations set, wherein the expectant nephew, to his joy, is telegraphed for by his dying uncle; and how the latter miraculously gets stronger and plumper day by day, just as the erstwhile buoyant and vigorous nephew's growing disappointment drags him visibly nearer and nearer to an untimely grave.
Then there is the little set of three Shooting Impressions of my Friend Marius who presumably hails from the Midi. First he is in the North of France with his gun and his dog — nothing in sight, no game at all! Next he is in the Midlands, both man and dog are happier, There's just a little, and a bird has been bagged. Lastly, he's in his beloved and romantic Midi and there's too much; there's no room to walk for the game; they press round and caress the bloodthirsty Marius, a hare is making up to the dog, and one confiding game bird has brought its nest of young and actually settled with them on the gun barrel!
Another splendid set is that of The Finest Conquest of Man, wherein is traced the marvellous horsemanship of a swell, who, with the greatest of ease and suavity, completely subdues a very demon of a horse.
But we could proceed thus ad infinitum and yet never give an idea of the wonderful spirit of the drawings, which must be seen to be loved.
Most of them are executed with a thin, very precise and sensitive line. How successfully he can manage bold masses when necessary we can judge by his excellent Cossack poster for the "Exposition Russe," or in those used to advertise the exhibition of his own works at the Fine Art Society, London, in 1898.