Charles Lucien Léandre

Charles Lucien Léandre
Self-portrait, 1920
Born	(1864-07-22)July 22, 1864 Champsecret
Died	May 24, 1934(1934-05-24) (aged 69) Montmartre
Occupation	Artist

Charles Lucien Léandre (1862–1934) was a French caricaturist and painter. He was born at Champsecret (Orne), and studied painting under Émile Bin and Alexandre Cabanel.^[1]

Early life[edit]

Charles Lucien Léandre was born on July 22, 1864, in Champsecret. His father was the mayor of the town in which they lived until his death in 1868. At 16, Léandre met the painter Émile Bin, who would instruct Léandre. Léandre received multiple awards for his artistic talents in his twenties.^[2]

Work and career[edit]

From 1887 Léandre figured among the exhibitors of the Salon, where he showed numerous portraits and genre pictures, but his popular fame is due to his comic drawings and caricatures. The series of the "Gotha des souverains," published in Le Rire, and Léandre's other work like that seen in L'Assiette au Beurre placed him in the front rank of contemporary caricaturists.^[1]

Besides his contributions to Le Rire, Le Figaro and other comic journals, he published a series of albums: Nocturnes, Le Musée des souverains, and Paris et la province.^[1] In 1904, he created the Société des Peintres Humoristes.

Léandre produced admirable work in lithography, and designed many memorable posters, such as the "Yvette Guilbert." "Les nouveaux mariés," "Joseph Prudhomme," "Les Lutteurs," and "La Femme au chien."^[1]

He died in 1934 in his Caulaincourt street studio, in Montmartre.

Honors[edit]

Léandre won a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1889 for a large size painting:^[2] la Mère ou « Dormio cor meum vigilat » ("Je dors mais mon coeur veille"). In 1900, at the next Exposition Universelle, he was among the five lithographic artists selected to achieve two compositions on a selected theme; he received a gold medal at this contest.

He was created a knight of the Legion of Honour.^[1] In 1921, he got the Medal of Honour of the Société des artistes français, in the engraving section, one of the more important honorary awards an artist could obtain in Paris. In 1925, Charles Léandre was promoted an Officer of the Legion of Honour.

Gallery[edit]

• 
  Selfportait 1900
• 
  Courteline
• 
  The mayor speech (Discours du maire)
• 
  Mademoiselle Sybille Achard de Bonvouloir, Pastel, 1900
• 
  Jeanne et Madeleine Lemoine (Nièces de l'artiste) Pastel, 1901
• 
  Jeune fille au châle,Pastel et fusain
• 
  L'élégante au chapeau rouge, Pastel, 1898
• 
  La femme au chien, Pastel, 1904
• 
  La mère du peintre, Pastel
• 
  Le petit messager, Lithographie originale
• 
  A S.M. La Reine Victoria, 1897
• 
  Pierrot et Colombine, ou Les Cantomines de Xavier Privas Poster, 1899
• 
  Le priseur normand, Painting, 1884
• 
  Valse
• 
  Le Roi de Rome, Poster
• 
  Je dors mais mon coeur veille, Painting, 1889
• 
  Rothschild, 1898
• 
  Leopold Roi Des Belges, 1897

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Charles Léandre Museum (France)
• Illustrated snapshot of the exhibition "Charles Léandre intime et multiple" managed by Musée de Montmartre (PARIS oct. 2007 - janvier 2008)
• Charles Léandre drawings at Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco^{[permanent dead link]}
• LeRire.com - Features OCR'd Le Rire issues
• L'assiette au beurre - Another belle epoque illustrated journal.
• Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henry Murger, Romagnol French edition of 1902 illustrated with etchings by Eugène Decisy [fr] after watercolors by Charles Léandre, at Gallica Digital Library.