André François

“Girl with Balloons, Paris”

Circa 1965

Andre Francois (1915–2005) André François (9 November 1915 – 11 April 2005), born André Farkas, was a Hungarian-born French cartoonist. He was born in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary (now Timișoara, Romania), He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest (1932–33). He moved to Paris in 1934 and entered to the atelier of the famous poster artist Adolphe Cassandre (1935–36). He became a French citizen in 1939. He worked as a painter, sculptor and graphic designer, but is best remembered for his cartoons, whose subtle humor and wide influence bear comparison to those of Saul Steinberg. François initially worked for French leftist newspapers (Le Nouvel Observateur) and illustrated books by authors such as Jacques Prévert, but gradually reached a larger audience, publishing in leading magazines of the United Kingdom (Punch) and the United States (The New Yorker). He also did a masterpiece cover illustration of the 1965 UK Penguin paperback edition of Lord of the Flies. He became a close friend and collaborator of Ronald Searle. He was member of Alliance Graphique Internationale. He died in his home in Grisy-les-Plâtres, in the Val-d'Oise département.