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Paris Illustration Art

Chas. Laborde (1886-1941)
Click Here for examples of Laborde's work

Charles Laborde (known as Chas Laborde) was born in Argentina to French parents. At 15 he made his first drawings for a humourous magazine and became a pupil of Baschet at the Academie Julian, and of Bouguereau at l'Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He fought in the First World War and afterwards travelled throughout England, creating a number of cruel but humourous illustrations of bourgeois life which were published in Rire Rouge and La Baionette.

He established himself as a satirical illustrator, but throughout his career his oil painting achieved an increasing respect and his work was seen as cerebral and penetratingly witty. He was commissioned to illustrate Rues et Visages de Paris, which was so successful that he was soon asked to create similar views in London, Berlin and Moscow. He died before Rues et Visages de New York was published.

Best known for his satirical, somewhat cruel works, where he poked fun at his own world of snobs and aristocrats between the two world wars, Chas-Laborde was also much in demande as an illustrator of novels.

A major retrospctive was organized the year following his death in Paris. In 1976, the Museum Galliéra in Paris presented an exhibit devoted to his drawings and engravings.

Cited in the Bénézit, international dictionary of artists, Chas-Laborde is listed in numerous art reference books, including Les Petits Maitres de la Peinture by Gérard Schuur

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