Expositions 2024

A soft line

He defined himself as ‘an illustrator with a soft line’. Today he is regarded as one of the greatest cartoonists of the last century, who had a profound impact on the aesthetics of humorous drawing.

Gus Bofa, whose real name was Gustave Blanchot, was born in 1883 into a large family who travelled all over France with their father, a professional soldier. An accomplished sportsman, he benefited from an excellent education and showed an early taste for drawing.
While still a student at the Beaux-Arts, he placed his first cartoons in Le Sourire, then directed by Alphonse Allais. A young factory worker by day, he worked at night as an advertising poster artist, with notable success.

In 1910, he became editor of the satirical weekly Le Sourire, which he successfully relaunched. In addition to his own drawings, he published those of Chas Laborde, Villemot and Poulbot. He also opened up this satirical weekly to young writers, including Pierre Mac Orlan, forging a lifelong friendship with him that would lead to numerous collaborations.

The war of 1914 turned out to be a major setback for this promising career: mown down by a burst of machine-gun fire in the early months of the conflict, Bofa refused to have one of his legs amputated. He remained a cripple and limped for the rest of his life.

This ordeal and the experience at the frontline dramatically changed his view of the world. The first traces of this shift can be seen in the drawings he produced from 1915 onwards for La Baïonnette, a weekly newspaper contributing to the war effort. There was no patriotic glory in these illustrations, just an ironic, unvarnished view of life on the battlefield. Bofa would never again magnify war, nor dwell on the hardships he had endured.

Once discharged from the army, he continued to publish and collaborate with other artists. In 1917, he illustrated Mac Orlan's Les Poissons morts and published Chez les toubibs, an account of the ongoing conflict that was full of subdued rage. Two years later he published his first novel, Rollmops. Also in 1919, he and a group of cartoonists launched Le Salon de l'Araignée, which was held annually until 1927, before a final edition in 1930. From 1922 to 1939, Bofa wrote the literary column in Le Crapouillot, where he was an outspoken critic. 

But above all, he drew. The interwar period was the heyday of bibliophile publishing in France, and Bofa carved out a special place for himself. He illustrated works of Jonathan Swift, Voltaire, Cervantes, Edgar Allan Poe, François Villon, Octave Mirbeau, Courteline and Marcel Aymé.
Even more remarkably, he single-handedly conceived thematic works that have become milestones in the history of comic strips. These included Le Livre de la guerre de Cent ans (1921) with texts by Pierre Mac Orlan, Les Synthèses littéraires et extralittéraires (1923), Malaises (1930) and Slogans (1940). In all, he published some sixty books over a career spanning forty years.

Like the artist himself, Bofa's drawings are pithy. A dry irony balances out their darkness. He dismisses the idea of jokes in favour of images that appeal to the reader's sensitivity, empathy and intelligence. His ‘soft line’ works wonders in melancholic or ‘uneasy’ moods, to use the title of one of his most remarkable collections. 

Although Bofa's reputation was immense in the interwar years, the Second World War and the post-war period changed the landscape of illustration. Bibliophile publishing went out of fashion, and although Bofa continued to publish remarkable pieces (La Voie libre in 1947, La Croisière incertaine in 1950, Déblais in 1951), their reception became increasingly confidential. 

By the time he died in 1968, Bofa had been forgotten, except by illustrators, particularly comic strip artists, who passed on his albums like so many treasures: Cabu revered him; at the start of his career, Tardi discovered the illustrations in La Baïonnette and drew inspiration from them. After them, Charles Berberian, Yves Chaland, Blutch, Christophe Blain, David Prudhomme, François Ayroles and many others have claimed his legacy.

Over the last twenty years or so, a major effort has been made to republish Bofa's works, putting him back where he belongs: at the forefront.

Translation : Éric Moreau