Date: 1896
Size: 10.75 x 14 inches
About the artist: From a portfolio designed by Gustave Henri Jossot and published by E. Menard + Company in 1896, which opens with the words of the artist: "Il faut tuer la guerre sous le ridicule!" (Loosely translated: "We must end war by making a mockery of it")
Jossot was born in 1866, and he was twenty when his firsts sketches were published in Dijon. At this time his personal artistic style and his sense of humour echoed the tastes and cultural views that surrounded him. While parodying the style of the Symbolists, by 1894 his eponymous designs has graduated to marry grotesque deformation with decorative distortions.
Much of his work lampooned the bourgeoisie , as can be seen from the titles of the illustrated books he produced: Artistes et Bourgeois (Paris: Louis Michaud 1896); Jockey-Club Sardines (1897); Minces de trognes (Paris: Hazard, 1896); Viande de Bourgeois (Paris: Louis Michaud, 1906).
The aesthetics of Jossot are closely linked with Nabis drawings and paintings, and with medieval illuminations and frescos, Japanese prints and french cartoonists, like Caran d’Ache, Morriss, and Louis Doës. Jossot was branded an anarchist, which he denied. Although he was never a militant, he was certainly an acid critic of the social and political systems of his time.
Caption: La preuve que ce n'est pas un imbécile, comme tu le prétends, c'est qu'il est conseiller municipal.
Translation: The proof that he's not a fool, as you claim, is that he's a city councilor.
RARE.