André Gill

Born Louis-Alexandre Gosset de Guînes in Paris on October 17, 1840, he later took the name André Gill. He studied art in Paris and built his reputation as a caricaturist, illustrator, and songwriter, becoming one of the best-known satirical artists of his generation.

Gill first worked for Le Journal amusant and then rose to wider fame through La Lune, where his boldly exaggerated portraits of writers, politicians, and performers helped define the look of French caricature in the later 1800s. His work was admired for being vivid and recognizable, and it placed him at the center of the lively artistic world of Paris.

His life was also marked by hardship. In his later years, he struggled with mental illness and died on May 1, 1885. Even so, André Gill remains an important figure in the history of satire and illustration, remembered for bringing humor, personality, and a distinctly Parisian spirit to his art.