The Illustrators of Montmartre

A survey of the artists working in and around Montmartre, offering biographical sketches and close readings of their illustrative techniques and subjects. Individual chapters profile figures such as Steinlen, Caran d’Ache, Toulouse-Lautrec, Vallotton, Morin, Huard, Willette, Léandre, Forain, and others, and reproduce representative plates and posters. The narrative traces how cabaret, theatre and street life shaped caricature, woodcut, and poster art, contrasts humour and sympathy in depiction of popular characters, and concludes by considering the district’s artistic temperament and arguing for a national collection of black-and-white work.