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
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
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
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