The hairy writer - original drawing - signed - Jean-Louis Forain (1852-1931)

Original drawing, signed by the hand of the artist jean-louis forain. 75 X 56 cm. Jean-louis forain. Born on october 23, 1852 in reims, he is the son of a modest sign decorator. Very early on, he showed a keen passion for drawing: "the statues of the cathedral were at the source of my vocation". Around 1860, his family moved to paris and at the age of 14, forain regularly went to the louvre where he copied the masters. At the age of 17, he frequented parisian bohemia and during the war of 1870, he contributed to the defense of fort de montrouge. An anarchist at heart, he expressed his sympathy for the communards before extinguishing the fires of the commune in an engineer battalion. He is the pupil of the caricaturist andré gill and executes some drawings in the irreverent "zut". His joking spirit naturally integrates him into the "zutiste" club and the dinners of the "vilains bonshommes" with arthur rimbaud and paul verlaine. 1874 is the year of his first refused shipment to the salon and his incorporation into the 101st infantry regiment in laval. On his return in 1875, he resumed a bohemian life in the latin quarter and montmartre. Destitute, he lived on the meagre fees of satirical newspapers that published his first drawings: le scapin in 1876, then la cravache parisienne, la république des lettres, la vie moderne, and finally le monde parisien.