Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts

Sunday, January 29, 2023

Ronald Searle: Pardong M'sieur

Pardong M'sieur is Ronald Searle's 1965 French language cartoon collection. Most of the drawings are wordless anyway, but the single heading Paris by night was retained in the author's native tongue, perhaps in error. The book was intended, one assumes, to extend Searle's popularity into the French market, bringing that country's readers up to date with a carefully curated selection of his work since 1953, much of it set in and around Paris. It was published by Éditions Denoël, the French house who also published the work of Jean-Jacques Sempé, René Goscinny, Jean-Maurice Bosc, Jules Feiffer, and Tomi Ungerer. I always thought the book was hard to find, but perhaps I was looking on the wrong continent. When a copy turned up on eBay for $35, it suddenly became attainable. My best offer of $25 was rejected by the seller. The seller's counteroffer of $30 was then accepted by me. Essentially, I saved the cost of shipping.

That's the Boucherie Chevaline on the cover, Parisian purveyor of horse meat. 






Ronald Searle
eBay listing accessed December 17, 2022

Ronald Searle
"This book is in very condition..."
eBay item description





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Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Mischa Richter: Daladier Salutes

My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.

—Neville Chamberlain 
September 30, 1938


Why does Mischa Richter's cover art for the American Marxist organ New Masses of December 13, 1938 show France's "radical" Prime Minister Édouard Daladier giving the Nazi salute? Cover blurbs read "French Reaction Runs Amok: A Cable from Paris" and "Who is this Daladier?" Daladier, nearly forgotten today, was premier of the French Third Republic. As such, he was a signatory to the Munich Agreement of 1938 in which France, the United Kingdom, and Italy permitted Nazi Germany to annex the Sudetenland, those parts of Czechoslovakia along Germany's border inhabited primarily by German speakers. This notorious act of appeasement ceded a strategic portion of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany while only temporarily averting the outbreak of war across Europe.


Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano before the signing of the Munich Agreement


Now we can understand the context of Mischa Richter's magazine cover. The original art was sold on eBay in March.
Édouard Daladier
Mischa Richter
Original art
New Masses, December 13, 1938

Édouard Daladier
Mischa Richter
New Masses, December 13, 1938

Mischa Richter
eBay Listing Ended March 25, 2018


Mischa Richter
eBay Item Description

Mischa Richter
eBay Bid History

The winning bid is placed two hours before the auction ends. Another bidder tries to top it three times in the final twenty minutes without success.



"French Reaction Runs Amok." The New Masses gets it right:
Daladier Arrives Home


Note:  Attempted Bloggery seeks scans and photographs of original cartoon art by Mischa Richter and other New Yorker artists.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:


Mischa Richter

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Friday, June 6, 2014

Constantin Alajálov: A.D. 1940

The January 1941 issue of Fortune found Europe thrown into the cataclysmic upheaval of war. Russian-born illustrator Constantin Alajálov provided four allegorical illustrations for the article "A.D. 1940" in the January 1941 issue of Fortune. The subject is America's newfound perceptions of three European nations--Russia, France, Great Britain--and of America herself. The illustrations were probably created about a year before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Ballet Russe

France

Great Britain

U.S.A.

France
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1941-Print-Battle-France-World-War-II-Cannon-Wartime-German-Invasion-Alajalov-/371062484482?pt=Art_Prints&hash=item56650c2e02

Great Britain


U.S.A.


Note:  After this, you may want to sample the the more humorous side of artwork by Constantin Alajálov here on this blog.

Here are some further blog posts about the Second World War.

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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Groucho's French Order of Arts and Letters

Steve Stoliar is the author of Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House, now in its second edition. When Groucho Marx's French Order of Arts and Letters was offered on eBay last October, the seller merely wrote, "I am not sure what Groucho received this for." Steve is the one who fully appreciated what was up for sale. He wrote:
I cannot tell you how sad this makes me. Groucho received this in 1972 at Cannes. He was SO proud of it. When he'd show it off, he'd say, "I got this and Chaplin got this." He kept it on his trophy table with his Oscar, Emmy, Peabody Awards, etc. He loved to wear it on special occasions (the Oscars) and show it off to guests. I don't know how this ended up simply "inventoried" per the label on the box and up for grabs, but it's extremely upsetting to me....

République française
République française
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Estate of Groucho Marx Asset #860019

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GROUCHO-MARX-ORDRE-DES-ARTS-ET-DES-LETTRES-MEDALLION-/251364302101?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a867add15&nma=true&si=UB68sj2DvLx%252F9kdb54zXrlCgzYs%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 




***

Groucho Marx displays his Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement at the Academy Awards presentation in Los Angeles, Ca., April 3, 1974. Groucho is wearing the Commander of Arts and Letters medal he received from the French government at Cannes in 1972. (AP Photo)
--SFGate
Oscar through the ages: 1970-1989
Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, February 8, 2011


Note:  Steve Stoliar's website is here. Be sure to check out his book Raised Eyebrows. He has always been a good friend to this blog. Posts of mine that Steve has contributed to may be seen here.


The original cover artwork to the new edition of Raised Eyebrows is currently being exhibited in New York at "Drew Friedman's Old Jewish Comedians" at the Society of Illustrators. This artwork along with other posts pertaining to Groucho Marx may be seen here.

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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Nice

Coming up at auction on August 3rd at Swann Galleries in New York is this gorgeous, atmospheric travel poster by Pierre Comba.  Nice never looked better.

PIERRE COMBA (1859-1934) NICE.
Sale 2252 Lot 258
PIERRE COMBA (1859-1934) NICE.
39x24 inches, 99x61 cm. Agence Française de Propagande, Paris.
Condition B+: repaired tears and restoration in margins and image.
Riviera 436 (var).
Estimate $1,000-1,500
August 3, 2011:  Unsold

Here's a variation from Christie's South Kensington:
COMBA, PIERRE (1859-1934)
NICE EN TOUTE SAISON

Price Realized
  • £576
  • ($1,153)
  • Price includes buyer's premium
Estimate
    £500 - £700
  • ($1,001 - $1,401)
Sale InformationSale 5239 Lot 268Shipping and Vintage Posters 28 June 2007 London, South Kensington
Lot Description
COMBA, PIERRE (1859-1934)
NICE EN TOUTE SAISON
offset lithograph in colours, printed by ADIA, Nice, condition B+; backed on linen
39½ x 24in. (100 x 61cm.)