French illustrators

Lucien_Métivet

Lucien Marie François Métivet (January 19, 1863 - July 16, 1932) was a French poster artist, cartoonist, illustrator, and author who achieved notoriety during the Belle Epoque. Best known for his 1893 poster of the chanteuse Eugénie Buffet, he was also a popular cover artist for the Parisian humor magazine Le Rire and a frequent contributor of cartoons and illustrations to it and other magazines, including Journal amusant. He illustrated books by a number of prominent authors of the time and wrote at least two books of his own. Métivet was "a master in caricature, humorous illustration and lithographic techniques" who became "one of the most prominent illustrators of the 19th century."

Jean-Adrien_Mercier

Jean-Adrien Mercier (1899–1995) was a French illustrator, poster artist, and advertising designer. Born in Angers, Mercier received his training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Angers, and then transferred to the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs (National School of Decorative Arts) in Paris in 1921. He began his career in 1924 as a designer of publicity and cinema posters, a field in which he remained active throughout his life. Between 1925 and 1942 Mercier designed more than 120 cinema posters and also produced numerous commercial posters. Notably, he designed for the house of Cointreau because of connections through his mother, the granddaughter of the founder of the company and daughter of the creator of triple sec Cointreau. Mercier worked there for some forty years, eventually becoming the artistic director of the firm. At the end of the 1930s, Mercier began producing illustrations for children's books and fairy tales. His entrance into children's book illustration was aided by his creation of the "Salut Olympique" for the Vichy government in 1940. Mercier was hired by the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique in 1961 to decorate the children's playroom on a transatlantic ocean liner and also design the ship's menus.

Roger_Broders

Roger Broders (born Paris, France, 1883, died, Paris, 1953) was a French illustrator and artist. He was best known for his travel posters promoting tourism destinations in France, typically fashionable beaches of the Côte d'Azur and skiing resorts in the French Alps in the early 20th century.Broders' illustrations were distinctive for their simple lines and bold, flat areas of color, combined with noticeable graphical perspective showing the featured mountains and seascapes in the background. Broders' illustrations depicting people show active elongated figures wearing elegant, contemporary clothes. His posters were simply and boldly lettered identifying the destination, and were supplemented with a brief slogan.
The Paris Lyon Mediteranée Company (PLM), a railway, commissioned Broders' poster art, sponsoring his travel so he could visit the subjects of his work. From 1922 to 1932, Broders fully dedicated himself to poster art, though overall he produced fewer than 100 posters. Lithographs of Broders' travel posters are still available commercially. See for instance Christie's London Ski Sale on 21 January 2010. Others are shown in the book about Railway Posters, published in Munich in 2011 and listed below.
During the 1940s he illustrated four of the works of the German author Karl May which were published by Éditions Mame at Tours in France in French language.

Henri_Lebasque

Henri Lebasque (25 September 1865 – 7 August 1937) was a French post-impressionist painter. He was born at Champigné (Maine-et-Loire). His work is represented in French museums, notably Angers, Geneva (Petit Palais), Lille (Musée des Beaux-Arts), Nantes, and Paris (Musée d’Orsay).