Georges Goursat [Sem]

ULAN has Sem as preferred display name, but following the Met with Georges Goursat [Sem]

SEM (1863–1934), né Georges Goursat, was a French illustrator and caricaturist who rose to fame during the Belle Époque.

Biography:

SEM: pseudonym of Goursat

French, 19th – 20th century, male.

Born 23 November 1863, in Périgueux; died 1934, in Paris.

Painter (gouache), watercolourist, draughtsman, caricaturist, illustrator, designer. Scenes with figures, portraits, genre scenes, animals.

Sem was a committee member of the Salon des Humoristes de Paris and featured there regularly. Two retrospectives have been dedicated to him, at the Musée Carnavalet in Paris, 1979-1980 and the Musée de Périgueux in 1980. He was made Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur.

He made decorative panels, including for the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. He produced around twenty albums as an illustrator: Album Sem (1893), Nightwatch (1925), Real and False Chic (Le Vrai et le faux chic) (1914), Sem at the Seaside, made of lithographic panels and showcasing a gallery of the celebrities of the day (published between 1898 and 1930). He also created two large series of horses and riders: Return from the Races and Acacias. His two albums War Sketches (1916 and 1917) stand separate from his other work in terms of both form and intention. He also illustrated Messrs Penpushers (Messieurs les Ronds-de-cuir) by G. Courteline, and his own works such as A Peking on the Forehead (Un Pékin sur le Front). He worked for various newspapers and magazines, including Le Gaulois, Le Figaro, Le Rire and Le Cri de Paris.

Sem had a remarkable ability to capture the characteristic feature of a face rather than providing its likeness. His albums of Parisian life authentically reflect the physiognomy of the famous era of the 1900s.

SEM." Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed November 18, 2015,