Albert Robida

Born in Compiègne, France, in 1848, Albert Robida became a remarkably versatile artist: illustrator, caricaturist, engraver, journalist, and novelist. He worked for the satirical press, including Le Journal amusant, and later edited and published La Caricature, building a reputation for lively drawings packed with detail and humor.

Robida is especially remembered today for his imaginative speculative books, where text and image work together. In works such as Le Vingtième Siècle and other futuristic novels, he pictured air travel, telecommunications, and modern urban life with a mix of wonder and skepticism, helping make him an early pioneer of science fiction illustration.

He never limited himself to one mode or genre: alongside his futuristic visions, he also illustrated historical and literary subjects with the same energetic style. Robida died in 1926, but his pictures of tomorrow still feel fresh because they are not just predictions—they are sharp, funny observations about how people live.