Jean Effel, real name François Lejeune (12 February 1908 – 10 October 1982), was a French painter, caricaturist, illustrator and journalist. Mostly he considered himself to be a journalist and political commentator. His pseudonym is created by his initials F. L.

Life

Effel was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and graduated in

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. Despite all efforts and wishes of his father to take over his merchant trade, Effel chose path of a professional artist. Often he drew for French newspaper

l'Humanité (; ) is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organisation of the SFIO, ''de facto'', and thereafter of the French Communist Party (PCF), and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, would not exist." History ...

and he is also author of illustrations of

Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French Fable, fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''La Fontaine's Fables, Fables'', which provided a model for subs ...

fables. The cartoon cycle ''The Creation of the World'' is considered to be his greatest work (It was filmed in 1957 by director E. Hofman). The entire cycle includes five books: ''Le Ciel et la Terre'' (Sky and earth), ''Les Plantes et Animaux'' (Plants and animals), ''L'Homme'' (Man), ''La Femme'' (Woman) and ''Le Roman d'Adam et Eve'' (Story of Adam and Eve). Among his important works are also the collection of anti-fascist caricatures from 1935 and the book of cartoons ''When Animals Still Talked'' from 1953. Effel's paintings are easily readable, fresh, humorous and novel, and carry his recognizable curly signature often with a little daisy in the lower right corner that shows the author's kind view of the world. Jean Effel had close relation to the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, and was the longstanding chairman of the ''Company of French-Czechoslovak Friendship''. He received the

Lenin Peace Prize The International Lenin Peace Prize (, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government, to notable individuals whom the panel ...

in 1967. He died in Paris in 1982. Jean Effel was celebrated by the French Postal service in a 4FF stamp issued on 5 October 1983.

Work

* 1935 – collection of antifascist caricatures * 1944 – ''Turelune le Cornepipeux'' – fairy tale * 1945 – ''La Création du Monde'' * 1953 – ''When Animals Still Talked''

References

External links

* 1908 births 1982 deaths Painters from Paris 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French male painters French caricaturists French illustrators Recipients of the Lenin Peace Prize Writers from Paris French male writers Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples 20th-century French journalists {{france-journalist-stub