Caran d'Ache

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Caran d'Ache's most famous cartoon. The Dreyfus Affair divided the whole of French society. Here, Caran d'Ache depicts a fictional family dinner. At the top, somebody remarks "let's not discuss the Dreyfus Affair". At the bottom, the family is fighting and the caption reads "they have discussed it".

Caran d'Ache (pseudonym of Emmanuel Poiré — Moscow, 1858 - 1909) was a French satiric political cartoonist. He was the grandson of an officer in Napoleon's Grande Armée. While his first work glorified the Napoleonic era, he went on to create "stories without words" and as a contributor to newspapers like "Lundi du Figaro", he is sometimes hailed as one of the fathers of the comic.

In 1892, Caran d'Ache published Carnet de Chèques ("Checkbook") on the Panama Canal Affair.

In 1895, he started publishing editorial cartoons (every Monday) in the daily le Figaro, and soon thereafter for the popular weekly Le Rire.

In 1898, Émile Zola published J'Accuse, which brought the Dreyfus Affair into the spotlight. Caran d'Ache founded with fellow cartoonist Forain the Psst... ! magazine. It would publish 85 numbers entirely composed of cartoons by Caran d'Ache and Forain, showing violent antisemitism and defense of the army's honor.

Caran d'Ache's pseudonym was based on the Russian word karandash (карандаш), meaning pencil.

Caran d'Ache is also the name of a famous Swiss fine arts products company, named by the founder, Arnold Schweitzer, after the cartoonist, whose drawings he was fond of.

http://www.carandache.ch

• LeRire.com - Features OCR'd Le Rire issues
• L'assiette au beurre - Another belle epoque illustrated journal.