Jean Veber (13 February 1864 – 28 November 1928) was a French

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Abril Lamarque (1904–1999) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfre ...

and

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Career overview

Jean Veber 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 ...

in 1864. Trained as a painter, he became an illustrator when his brother

Pierre Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

urged him to join the staff of the newspaper ''Gil Blas''. In 1897, his drawing depicting

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...

as a butcher of his own people caused a major controversy. Some of his caricatures were also published in '' L'Assiette au Beurre'' and ''

Le Rire ''Le Rire'' (, "Laughter") was a successful French humor magazine published from October 1894 until its final issue in April 1971. Founded in Paris during the Belle Époque by Felix Juven, ''Le Rire'' appeared as typical Parisians began to ach ...

''. Veber volunteered into service in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

at fifty years of age. He was intoxicated by poisonous gases and demobilized in the course of 1918. Jean Veber died in 1928.

Reputation

Jean Veber is quite a peculiar phenomenon which has not yet been deservedly appreciated. On one characteristic ground: because he never understood how to be solemn; because he seems not to take himself or his art seriously. He began as a caricature draughtsman for Boulevard papers, and only when his vocation for this peculiar province was well established, did he exhibit oil-paintings. But he was already labelled, and people continue to regard him merely as a comic draughtsman. The public refuses to allow a double renown to a single talent. ..Jean Veber is the descendant in the direct line of the younger David Teniers, the Adriaen Brouwers, and the Hollen-Breughels. From them he derives his full style of painting, his deep, rich colours, his great sureness and luxuriance of execution, his clear composition and florid imagination. He differs, however, from them in the quality of his fancy which delights in symbols replete with philosophical references; frequently in Saadic spectacles of cruelty and lust, and very often in lubricities of the Félicien Rops kind. This is the effect of the hundred and fifty to three hundred years which separate him from his more innocent spiritual ancestors.Nordau, Max (1907)
''On Art and Artists.''
Philadelphia: G.W. Jacobs, pp. 264–66.

Caricatures

File:L'arracheuse de dents - Jean Veber.jpg, ''L'arracheuse de dents'', 1904 File:L'Impudique Albion.jpg, ''L'impudique

Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than "Britain" today. The name for Scot ...

'' File:Le hochet de la République - Jean Veber.jpg, ''Le hochet de la République'', 1904 File:Guillaume II by Veber.JPEG, ''Guillaume II'', 1918 File:Caricature of Jean Veber.jpg, "M. Veber's idea of himself" File:Lemaitre by Jean Veber.jpg, "Two versions of M.

Jules Lemaître François Élie Jules Lemaître (27 April 1853 – 4 August 1914) was a French critic and dramatist. Biography Lemaître was born in Vennecy, Loiret. He became a professor at the University of Grenoble in 1883, but was already well known for h ...

Portraits

File:Charles Guérin by Jean Veber.jpg,

Charles Guérin Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

File:Francis Jammes by Jean Veber.jpg,

Francis Jammes Francis Jammes (; 2 December 1868, in Tournay, Hautes-Pyrénées, Tournay – 1 November 1938, in Hasparren) was a French and European poet. He spent most of his life in his native region of Béarn and the Northern Basque Country, Basque Country ...

File:Francis Vielé-Griffin by Jean Veber.jpg, Francis Vielé-Griffin File:Henri Ghéon by Jean Veber.jpg, Henri Ghéon File:René Boylesve by Jean Veber.jpg, René Boylesve File:Henri Mazel by Jean Veber.jpg, Henri Mazel File:Paul Fort by Jean Veber.jpg,

Paul Fort Jules-Jean-Paul Fort (1 February 1872 – 20 April 1960) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. At the age of 18, reacting against the Naturalistic theatre, Fort founded the Théâtre d'Art (1890–93). He also founded and edi ...

Paintings

File:Jean Veber - Ulysses and Nausicaa, 1888.jpg, Ulysses and

Nausicaa Nausicaa (; , or , ), also spelled Nausicaä or Nausikaa, is a character in Homer's ''Odyssey''. She is the daughter of King Alcinous and Arete (mythology), Queen Arete of Scheria, Phaeacia. Her name means "burner of ships" ( 'ship'; 'to burn' ...

, 1888

Notes

External links

Works by Jean Veber
at Gallica
Art Institute of Chicago
{{DEFAULTSORT:Veber, Jean 1864 births 1928 deaths Painters from Paris 19th-century French painters French caricaturists 20th-century French painters