Émile-Antoine Bayard

1837-1891 French

Émile-Antoine Bayard

Iconic Les Misérables illustrator

Émile-Antoine Bayard was a French illustrator born in La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Seine-et-Marne. A student of Léon Cogniet, he is best known by many for his illustration of Cosette from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. He died in Cairo. Starting in 1853, Bayard was a student of Cogniet for five years, publishing his first cartoons at the age of fifteen, often using the anagrammatic pseudonym, Abel De Miray. Between 1857 and 1864, he worked in the mediums of charcoal drawings, paintings, watercolors, woodcuts, engravings, and lithographs. In 1864, he began to work primarily for magazines, and illustrated current events such as the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. At the end of the 19th century, with a growing interest in photography displacing documentary drawing, Bayard moved to illustrating novels, including Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, L'Immortel by Alphonse Daudet, "Robinson Crusoé by Daniel De Foë, and From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne. His illustration of Cosette from Les Misérables was adapted for the logo from the Cameron Mackintosh musical.

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