Editing Adolphe Willette

{{short description|French painter (1857–1926)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Expand French|topic=bio|date=June 2020}}
[[File:Adolphe Willette 1913.jpg|thumb|200px|Adolphe Willette in 1913]]
'''Adolphe Léon Willette''' (30 July 1857 – 4 February 1926) was a French [[Painting|painter]], [[illustrator]], [[caricaturist]], and [[lithographer]], as well as an [[architect]] of the famous [[Moulin Rouge]] [[cabaret]]. Willette ran as an "[[antisemitism|anti-semitic]]" candidate in the 9th arrondissement of Paris for the September 1889 legislative elections.

==Biography==
Willette studied for four years at the [[École des Beaux-Arts]] under [[Alexandre Cabanel]]. His graphical work ranged from dainty triviality or political [[satire]]: he made [[Pierrot]] an imaginary hero of France, and established Mimi Pinson as frail, lovable, and essentially good-hearted. He could also be bitter and fierce, a partisan of political ideas. The [[guillotine]] and the figure of Death appear in his caricatures.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Willette, Leon Adolphe|volume=28|page=650}}</ref> At the time of the [[Dreyfus affair]] he was an ''anti-dreyfusard'';<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schwartz |first1=Vanessa R. |last2=Przyblyski |first2=Jeannene M. |title=The Nineteenth-century Visual Culture Reader |date=2004 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-30865-6 |page=336 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JAuPcgxiT0QC&pg=PA336 |language=en}}</ref> with [[Jean-Louis Forain]], he moved to the political right.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leighten |first1=Patricia |title=The Liberation of Painting: Modernism and Anarchism in Avant-Guerre Paris |date=8 November 2013 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-00242-2 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wUMJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA28 |language=en}}</ref>

==Works==
The artist was a prolific contributor to the French illustrated press under the pseudonyms "Cémoi", "Pierrot", "Louison", "Bébé", and "Nox", but more often under his own name. He illustrated [[Melandri]]'s ''Les Pierrots'' and ''Les Giboulles d'avril'', ''[[Le Courrier français (1884–1913)|Le Courrier français]]'', and published his own ''Pauvre Pierrot'' and other works, in which he tells his stories in scenes in the manner of Busch. He decorated several "brasseries artistiques" with wall-paintings, stained glass, and so on notably Le Chat noir and La Palette d'or, and he painted the ceiling for [[La Cigale]] music hall. Willette contributed to the [[Salon des Cent]] and six of his posters were published in ''[[Les Maîtres de l'Affiche]]''. A collection of his works was exhibited in 1888. His ''V'almy'' is in the Luxembourg, Paris.<ref name="EB1911" />

Willette's characteristically fantastic ''Parce Domine'' was commissioned by [[Rodolphe Salis]] for [[Le Chat Noir]] in [[Montmartre]]. It was shown in the [[Franco-British Exhibition (1908)|Franco-British Exhibition]] in 1908.<ref name="EB1911" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hewitt |first1=Nicholas |title=Montmartre: A Cultural History |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-1-78694-023-0 |page=40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQtDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40 |language=en}}</ref>

==Selected works==
<gallery mode=packed heights=200>
File:Alone at last2.jpg|''Journée du [[Poilu]].<br/> 25 et 26 décembre 1915''
File:1889 French election poster for antisemitic candidate Adolphe Willette.jpg|Anti-Semitic Election poster<br/> for Willette
File:Les_Maîtres_de_l'Affiche_-_43_-_Cacao_Van_Houten_(bgw20_0371).jpg|Cacao Van Houten
File:Willette_A._-_lithography,_watercolor_-_Diplôme_d'abonné_fidèle_au_courrier_français_-_39,5x52,5cm.jpg|"Diploma" for a loyal subscriber to ''Le Courrier Français''
File:Unkraut,_aber_guter_Dünger.jpg|Cover of ''Le Rire Rouge''. #43
File:Willette_affiche.jpg|Poster for ''Le Courrier Français
File:Cheret,_Jules_-_Exposition_de_Tableux_et_Dessins_de_A._Willete_(pl_97).jpg|Exposition of works by Willete 
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Adolphe Willette}}
{{Portal|Biography}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060502142611/http://www.assietteaubeurre.com/ Selections from ''l'Assiette au Beurre'']

{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willette, Adolphe}}
[[Category:1857 births]]
[[Category:1926 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Châlons-en-Champagne]]
[[Category:19th-century French painters]]
[[Category:French male painters]]
[[Category:20th-century French painters]]
[[Category:20th-century French male artists]]
[[Category:French caricaturists]]
[[Category:French illustrators]]
[[Category:Art Nouveau painters]]
[[Category:Art Nouveau illustrators]]
[[Category:Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery]]
[[Category:20th-century French printmakers]]
[[Category:Moulin Rouge]]
[[Category:19th-century French male artists]]