Albert Guillaume

French Watercolor Portrait - Lady in Deep Thought

Circa 1970

Albert Guillaume, born in Paris, France on February 14th, 1873, was a French painter and caricaturist who became a leading caricaturist during the Belle Époque. He created theater posters as well as advertising posters that were greatly influenced by the work of one of the preeminent poster painters, Jules Chéret. While remembered for his poster art, Guillaume was also widely recognized for his oil paintings of upper-crust Parisian society. His paintings reflect the customs, habits and societal activities of his day, and are complex compositions featuring Parisian society at leisure. Guillaume is also known for his satirical drawings that appeared in Parisian humor magazines such as Gil Blas, Le Rire, L’Assiette au Beurre, and Le Figaro. The winner of a bronze medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 in Paris, Guillaume had many of his illustrations published in albums by such firms as Ernest Maindron and Librairie illustrée, J. Tallandier, including three albums of military cartoons with the preface for the 1896 edition written by Georges Courteline. Albert Guillaume died on August 10th, 1942 in the rural village of Faux in the Dordogne department of Fran