L’Illustration, French Journal –  1843-1944

This remarkable weekly French news publication ran for just over 100 years until its final editor, Jacques Lesdain, was convicted of collaborating with the Nazis and the magazine was shut down in August 1944. He managed to destroy one of the greatest French periodical informative journals ever produced. He escaped to Germany when the Allies entered Paris and was sentenced to death in his absence in 1950 ,but was not brought back from Germany. He had collaborated with the Germans throughout the war, writing articles praising the great achievements of Hitler and the Nazis . The articles written in the L’Illustration, however, were by brilliant French writers, and the printers produced lovely layouts, with some colour images being surrounded by gold picture borders. It should also be noted that the paper used was of the highest quality.

Every Christmas a special NOEL edition was printed, containing remarkable colour plates beautifully presented. The theme of the season was strongly represented celebrating religious images and art works. We have downloaded a couple of these remarkable images for you to see. These are from another edition  called ‘Le Salon 1922 de Illustration – La Saison D’Art de Paris, which published many black and white photo’s of art works, as well as some beautiful individual colour plates. One such example  in this 1922 edition is an amusing  colour painting by the artist Albert Guilleaume called  Musique Modern .It depicts a lady of the era seated at her piano surrounded by some characterful gentleman and some ladies lounging on the floor propped up on cushions, intently listening to whatever music she may be playing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a bottom half scan of the Front cover of this copy of the Salon de 1922 – L’Illustree.  It was marked as (Prix 10 Francs). The exact date was  13th May 1922.  vv