Jean-Louis Forain

France·1852-1931

Jean-Louis Forain shaped his art around the texture of Parisian life. Born in Reims in 1852, he moved to Paris as a child and trained under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux Arts. He began as a caricaturist for journals like Le Monde Parisien, work that led him into the orbit of Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas at the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes. Degas became a lifelong influence and friend. Forain showed in four of the Impressionist exhibitions between 1879 and 1886, painting the spectacles of modern Paris—racetracks, theaters, cafés—in watercolor, pastel, and oil. His real fame came from satirical drawing. For over thirty years he drew for Le Figaro and Le Courrier Français, becoming the age's most celebrated caricaturist, chronicling political upheavals and social folly with a wit reminiscent of Honoré Daumier. He served in the First World War and later received the Legion of Honour. He died in Paris in 1931.