Artist Andre Francois (1915 – 2005) was one of the brightest lights among one of my favourite tribes of creative people, the cartoonist/illustrators. The sheep above was seen at a wonderful blog called the animalarium, seen here
Born in what was then Hungary, but which became Romania, he followed his talent to Paris and made a long, successful career illustrating books, creating posters, and providing eye catching images for the covers of magazines like Punch, Holiday, and The New Yorker.
Above image is from his obituary in the New York Times in 2005. Available here
Above is from a lovely book called Roland that he illustrated in 1958, seen here
This is from a very cool crocodile book, Les larmes de crocodile, seen here.
Sometimes, he produced work around a single visual element, like a clockface.
But other times, he just imagined something simple and new.
Once you’ve seen a bit of it, his work is recognizable instantly, and yet he never actually repeats himself. Some of his most memorable work was done for big companies, like Citroen and Kodak.
But he reached his widest audience with his covers for the New Yorker. They were always worth waiting for.
Below is another visual thought about the elevator, completely new.
In 2002 a fire in his studio destroyed nearly all of his work. Though his health wasn’t good, he was determined to leave more tangible examples of his legacy than those reproduced in books, and in his last years set about trying to produce a body of new work.
Adieu M Francois. Thank you for the sunshine of your mind.
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
June 17, 2010 at 4:56 am
birdbee
Years ago I had a book called “Man Bites Man”. It was a collection of satirical cartoons and illustrations that included some pieces by André François. I think I was still in my 20’s then, and many of the works in that book had a profound effect on me. Brilliant.
September 29, 2011 at 11:15 am
Gabriel
I first became aware of Mr. Francois’ work in my senior year of college (almost nine years ago), through his wonderful 1986 retrospective book published by Harry N. Abrams, and it decidedly changed the way I look at illustration and graphics, not to mention my own work.
Since then, I’ve encountered many amazing cartoons and images through online searches and old illustration annuals that are not included in the aforementioned book (including several of his 1960s and ’70s New Yorker covers), which I think deserve to be more widely seen.
Maybe a new retrospective book is long overdue? It’d be fantastic if newer generations of illustrators were more aware of Mr. Francois’ legacy — maybe there wouldn’t be so much mediocre, badly executed work being published (not to mention an almost worrying lack of imagination and good ideas, particularly in advertising).
December 18, 2012 at 4:30 am
Long-term parking | things magazine
[…] Republic of Less collates the work of illustrator Andre Francois / Wallpaper Graduate Directory 2012, always worth a browse / the Museum of Finnish Architecture has […]
July 15, 2013 at 12:51 am
beyondvisual
Only just come across the brilliant work of André François after watching this interview with Quentin Blake http://www.webofstories.com/play/quentin.blake/24;jsessionid=3C70496956966211B878DE2EA95D4C4D