Sem (artist)
Georges Goursat | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 23 November 1863[1] |
| Died | 26 November 1934[2] Paris |
| Nationality | French |
| Other names | Sem |
| Occupation | artist |
| Known for | caricatures, posters |
Georges Goursat (1863–1934), known as Sem, was a French caricaturist famous during the Belle Époque.
Life and works
Youth (1863–1900)
Georges Goursat was born and raised in an upper-middle-class family from Périgueux.[3] The wealth inherited from his father at the age of 21[4] allowed him to sustain a gilded youth.[5]
In 1888 he self published in Périgueux his first three albums of caricatures, signing some as "SEM"[6] (Figure, left), allegedly as a tribute[7] to Amédée de Noé who signed his caricatures for Le Monde illustré as "Cham".[8]
From 1890 to 1898, he settled for a few years in Bordeaux.[9] During this period, he published more albums and his first press caricatures in La Petite Gironde[10] and discovered the work of Leonetto Cappiello.[11] His style matured, becoming both simpler and more precise.[12]
During the same period, he made trips to Paris. In 1891, he designed two posters printed in the workshop of Jules Chéret (Figure, right) for the singer Paulus.[11] He published his first caricatures of artists in L'Illustration (Albert Brasseur) and Le Rire (Paulus, Polin and Yvette Guilbert[i. 1]).[11]
From 1898 to 1900, he lived in Marseille.[13][i. 2] During this stay, he met Jean Lorrain who convinced him to live in Paris.[14]
Belle Époque (1900–1914)
Goursat arrived in Paris in March 1900, at the time of the opening of the Universal Exposition.[15]
He picked horse races[i. 3] as his way of entry in high society.[15] In June, three months after his arrival, he self-published a new album, Le Turf, with caricatures of many prominent Parisian socialites (Marquess Boni de Castellane, Prince Trubetskoy, Count Clermont-Tonnerre, Baron Alphonse and Gustave de Rothschild, Polaire).[15] The success of this album made him famous overnight.[16] In October of the same year, he published another album, Paris-Trouville, with the same success. Nine others followed until 1913.[17]
In 1904, Goursat received the Légion d'honneur.[18] In 1909, he exhibited with the painter Auguste Roubille, first in Paris, then in Monte Carlo and London. a diorama, composed of hundreds of wooden figurines "of all the merely Paris celebrities".[19]
World War I (1914–1918)
Aged over 50 at the start of World War I, Goursat was not drafted.[20] He nevertheless involved himself as a war correspondent for Le Journal.[20] Some of his rather "chauvinistic" articles had an "enormous impact".[21] Ten were published in 1917 in Un pékin sur le front. Two others were incorporated in 1923 in another book, La Ronde de Nuit.[22] In 1916 and 1918 Goursat published two albums of Croquis de Guerre (War sketches). Their style is completely different from his previous work.[21] He also designed posters for war bonds.[23]
Années Folles (1918–1934)
After the war, Goursat came back to the kind of caricatures that made him famous. In 1919, he published Le Grand Monde à l'envers (High Society upside down).[24] Around 1923, he published 3 albums under the general title of Le Nouveau Monde (The New World).[25] In 1923, he was made an officer of the Légion d'honneur.[26] In 1929, he was severely impoverished by the economic crisis.[27] After a heart attack in 1933,[28] he died in 1934.[2]
Personalities caricatured by Goursat
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References
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 13)
- ^ a b (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 171)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 14)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 18)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 19)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, pp. 21–23)
- ^ Dixmier, Michel (2007). Quand le crayon attaque: images satiriques et opinion publique en France, 1814–1918 (in French). Autrement. p. 167. ISBN 978-2-7467-1052-8.
- ^ Guerrand, Roger-Henri. "SEM Georges Goursat dit (1863–1934)" (in French). Encyclopaedia Universalis. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, pp. 25–33)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 25)
- ^ a b c (Bonnelle, Meneret, pp. 30–33)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 26)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 35)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 41)
- ^ a b c (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 45)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 46)
- ^ "La Belle Époque". Association Sem. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ "Bloc-notes parisien". Le Gaulois (in French). 15 August 1904.
- ^ Pollard, Percival (1911). Vagabond Journeys: The Human Comedy at Home and Abroad. p. 42.
- ^ a b (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 100)
- ^ a b (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 112)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 102)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 116)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 121)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 123)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 130)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 136)
- ^ (Bonnelle, Meneret, p. 170)
Images
- ^ Goursat, Georges. "Les demi-vieilles" (in French). Joconde. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ Goursat, Georges. "Le port de Marseille" (in French). Réunion des Musées Nationaux. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ Flameng, François; Vizzavona, François Antoine (1913). "Portrait de M. Sem, souvenir d'Ascot" (in French). Réunion des Musées Nationaux.
Bibliography
- Bonnelle, Madeleine; Meneret, Marie-José (1979). SEM (in French). Périgueux: Pierre Fanlac. ISBN 2-86577-144-X.
- Dini, Francesca (2006). Boldini, Helleu, Sem : protagonisti e miti della Belle Epoque (in Italian). Skira.
