Music in Art XXXIV/12 (2009)

ANDR GILL AND MUSICIANS IN PARIS IN THE 1860S AND 1870S:

CARICATURES IN LA LUNE AND LCLIPSE
ANITA BRECKBILL
University of Nebraska, Lincoln

The Music Library at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln holds twenty musical caricatures by Andr
Gill published as covers of the newspapers La Lune: Semaine comique illustre (18651868) and Lclipse: Journal
hebdomadaire (18681876). The prints are part of the Rokahr Family Archive, which includes over 6000 scores
and books related to opera. According to the collector Jack Rokahr, these drawings are a complete set of caricatures on musical subjects that Andr Gill produced for these newspapers. Evidence from contemporary
sources indicates that the publication of each caricature is tied to an event or performance. Further study illuminates issues of censorship in Paris during the time and throws light on the reception of composers and
singers in Parisian society.
Andr Gill (born as Louis-Alexandre Gosset de Gunes; 18401885) [fig. 1] started his illustrating career
in Le journal amusant. As a young man of 25, he was introduced to Franois Polo, at that time the publisher
of the unillustrated newspaper Le Hanneton. Realizing Gills potential, Polo established La Lune, the weekly
four-sheet newspaper, for which Gill was commissioned to draw cover illustrations. The paper was an immediate success. In less than two years its circulation surpassed 40,000 printed copies each week and caricatures
by Andr Gill papered the walls of the Paris boulevards. When La Lune was terminated by the censors in
1868, Polo immediately replaced it with Lclipse, and Gill continued drawing his caricatures until the newspaper ceased its publication in 1876. Lclipse was then replaced by the periodical La Lune rousse (18761879)
which was edited by Gill. The end of Gills life was somewhat tragic. He died at the age of 45 in the Charenton asylum where he had been incarcerated for several years. Offenbach had died just a few years earlier,
in 1880. These two figures, one artistic and one musical, might be said to sum up the spirit of Parisian society
and culture in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
OFFENBACH [fig. 3]. The first musical caricature that Gill produced for La Lune featured Offenbach, the
preeminent Paris operetta composer. Offenbach came to Paris as a young cellist and played in the orchestra
at the Opra, so Gill pictured him riding the cello. He was an irrepressible youth who would occasionally
play pranks to fight the monotony of the performances. Once, he secretly tied together several chairs and
music stands, and during the performance made them dance to the amusement of his fellow orchestra members. Apparently entertaining himself and his colleagues in the orchestra was worth the deduction from his
pay that resulted.1
La vie parisienne, arguably Offenbachs finest work, opened at the Palais Royal in Paris on 31 October
1866. The related cartoon appeared in La Lune on 4 November, within a week of that premiere. In its background are shown characters from earlier operettas: Barbe-bleue (premiered on 5 February 1866 at the Varits), La belle Hlne (1864, Varits), La chanson de Fortunio (1861, Bouffes), Les deux aveugles (1855, BouffesParisiens), and Orphe aux enfers (1858, Bouffes-Parisiens), while in the foreground a dog with a begging bowl
labeled Barkouf, another opera-bouffe of Offenbach, runs away.
2009 Research Center for Music Iconography CUNY

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Anita Breckbill, Andr Gill and Musicians in Paris: Caricatures in La Lune and Lclipse

1. Andr Gill at age 25. Photograph by Eugne Libert. From: Charles Fontane, Un matre de la caricature:
Andre Gill, 18401885 (Paris: ditions de lIbis,
[1927]), vol. 1, opposite p. 26.

Offenbach had opened his own theater in 1855 called the Bouffes-Parisiens because of, as he said, the
continued impossibility of getting my work produced by anybody else. I said to myself that the Opra-Comique was no longer the home of comic opera, and that the idea of really gay, cheerful, witty music was gradually being forgotten. The composers who wrote for the Opra-Comique wrote little grand operas.2 He
continued proposing productions for the larger theaters throughout his life with occasional success.
PATTI [fig. 2]. Later in November, Gill published a drawing of Adelina Patti, one of the most celebrated
divas of the Second Empire, and her sister Carlotta Patti, a singer in her own right. Adelina sang with the
Thatre Italien, and toured in New York, England, and elsewhere. The article that accompanied this drawing
in La Lune passed on Adelina Patti legendsshe sang solfge before she knew how to speak, and, as an infant, she could whimper entire arias from Norma.3 The drawing of Patti and her sister Carlotta as birds probably refers to their touring. As the caption says, Loin de notre Paris, pourquoi, mesdemoiselles, emigrer
si souvent? Oh! Les vilaines ailes!4 Several weeks previously a French musical magazine, Le Mnestrel, wrote
in glowing terms of Pattis singing in a recent revival of La Traviata,5 and the magazine often mentioned Patti
in the weekly theater reviews, listing her current tours and travels. While Patti was very popular, there seemed to be some doubt as to her artistic sense, as is illustrated by this anecdote.
A son arrive Paris, la Patti alla rendre visite Rossini et, voulant faire le mastro juge des
progrs quelle avait accomplis depuis la prcdente saison, elle se mit au piano et roucoula de sa voix
la plus frache un des morceaux de son opra: Le Sige de Corinthe.
Lorsquelle eut fini de rossignoler, Rossini sapprocha dAdelina tout mue, et lui dit, avec son
fin et doux sourire:
Vous avez chant ravir, ma chre enfant; de qui donc est ce morceau?6

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2. Andr Gill, Adelina et Carlotta Patti, La Lune II/38 (25

November 1866).

STRAUSS [fig. 4], the music director of the court balls and a composer of dance music, was shown surrounded by characters dancing the quadrille. This drawing, published on 6 January 1867, is probably reminding the viewers of a Near Years ball at the Opra a few days earlier. The published form of this caricature
illustrates some censorship issues. Publishers of the time were proud of la libert de la plume (the freedom
of the pen), but they did not also have la libert du crayon (the freedom of the pencil). While the printed
word was not subject to prior censorship, drawings were. Robert Justin Goldstein noted that the French
authorities regulated caricatures more strictly than words because they felt drawings had a greater impact
than words and were more threatening to their power.7 While a written article could be rebutted, there was
no such possibility for a damaging picture. Thus drawings had to be approved by the censors prior to publication. In addition, beginning in 1852 and continuing until 1881, a living person depicted in a caricature also
had to give written consent for publication.8 As a result, this put a burden on the artist.
The written consent was sometimes quite cleverly done, and occasionally was published along with the
caricature. In this case, Strauss wrote: Ainsi que vous le desirez Monsieur, je vous autorise faire ma charge
en trois temps.9 To fulfill Strausss express wish, Gill included a line of a waltz score at the bottom of the
page. In addition, this issue of La Lune had three printings, each with different colors. The first was printed
with blue and yellow; the second had red added to some of the clothing of the dancers, as well as their noses;
in the third printing Strauss himself was retouched. Strausss desire to be depicted in triple time was fulfilled
here in color.
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SCHNEIDER AND SILLY [fig. 5]. Hortense Schneider and Mlle. Silly were divas in every sense of the word.
Schneider had long been Offenbachs leading lady, but in addition to being a gorgeous singer, she was a difficult person. Her acting was described thus:
sur la scne, quelle transfiguration! Lil gris sillumine; on dirait que tous les feux de la rampe sy
refltent. Il y a des mots quelle lance comme on donnerait un baiser. La narine sagite, senfle, se
dilate et frmit avec des impatiences voluptueuses qui traduisent tout ce que la bouche ne peut pas
dire.10

Apparently in the first production of Offenbachs operetta La belle Hlne, Schneider accused her fellow
leading lady, Mlle. Silly, of stealing her lines. Later, in 1867, she signed a contract with the Varits on condition that Silly never again play in the same cast with her. When Gill drew this caricature, Schneider was
singing in a revival of La belle Hlne at the Varits while Silly was the leading lady in La Vnus aux carottes.11
Here the two divas are closely intertwined. Commentary below the drawing suggests that Gill pictured the
singers as two young vestals tenderly united in the maintenance of the sacred fire, which you see smoking
up from the valentines beneath. Schneider, however, is thumbing her nose at us, and Silly is making a
cursing gesture, so all is not well.
SASS [fig. 6]. Marie Sass was a Belgian soprano who worked in the cafes of Paris until being hired by the
Thtre Lyrique in 1859. At the time of this drawing, Marie Sass was singing the role of Elizabeth de Valois
in Verdis Don Carlos at the Paris Opra. The opera had opened on 11 March 1867 and the caricature is from
the end of the following month. That summer Don Carlos became the Opras showpiece at the Paris Worlds
Fair. La Lune often included a short article accompanying the front-page picture. Here, the writer points out
the opulence of the sopranos contours, but also says that Marie Sass est, pour le moment, et juste titre,
la cantatrice le plus en vogue, Paris, ct de la petite Patti, lange de la clef de sol.12
UGALDE [fig. 7]. Marie Sasss teacher, also a soprano, Delphine Ugalde, is pictured in May of 1867, in her
trouser role of Prince Charming in Cendrillon. Congratulatory bouquets for other roles, in Gil Blas, as Euridice
and as Galathe, surround her. In this year, Madame Ugalde was singing in her own one-act operetta, La
Halte au moulin, at the Bouffes-Parisien, the theater that Offenbach founded.
ROSSINI [fig. 8]. Just like earlier in the caricature of Offenbach, Rossini is also shown with a dog and his
begging bowl sitting patiently at the side as the composer lights a mirliton as if it were a firecracker. The
dogs begging bowl probably suggests that Rossini was a modern composer, as was Offenbach, not
dependent on a patron or the church for his livelihood, but dependent instead on the payment of the public.
On the mirliton are various monikers for Rossini, Le Matre and Le Cynge de Pessaro (the swan of Pessaro),
Rossinis birthplace. As with Strauss, Rossinis permission for the caricature is published underneath. He
writes the following from Passy, where he was living at the time: Monsieur F. Polo. Jadhre avec plaisir
la publication de ma caricature dans votre journal heureux de voir que Le Singe de Pesaro nest point
oubli.13 Rossini is making a pun at his own expense, changing cynge (swan) to singe (monkey). This
issue of La Lune was published 6 July 1867, and Rossinis note was dated on 27 June 1867, showing that Gill
had to think ahead to get appropriate permissions before publishing. On 1 July, a few days before the
publication of this issue, but after Rossini gave his permission, a new composition of Rossinis had been
performed at the Paris Worlds Fair. The piece, Dieu tout puissant, which was a hymn to Napoleon III, is
reported to have a bombastic text, performed by orchestra, military band, chorus of high priests, chorus of
soldiers, bells, side drums and cannon, which we see in the caricature.14 Rossini is dressed as a pifferaro, an
Italian pipe player, whose clothing underlines his Italian roots.
PARISIAN ACTRESSES [fig. 9]. Seven Parisian character actresses who had small parts in a variety of operettasMlle. Massin, Cline Montaland, Marie Roze, Delval, Georgette Vernet, Blanche Pierson, and Ernestine Lecordier, dite Desclauzasappear in a group portrait. Images of the actresses are held in a hand, which
might be that of Paris, offering the golden apple to the loveliest actress.15 We can only guess why Delval is
shown headless. Did Gill perhaps not have permission to draw a caricature of her? The article accompanying
this caricature gives short descriptions of twenty-three actresses. Monteland is here called a victim of good
nourishment, and the writer imagines a scene where someone comes to propose to her and must do so from
the stairs because there is no space in the room.
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36. Andr Gill, Jacques Offenbach, La Lune II/35 (13 November 1866) Strauss, chef dorchestre des Bals de
lOpra, La Lune III/44 (6 January 1867) Silly-Schneider? Schneider-Silly?, La Lune III/46 (20 January 1867)
Marie Sass (du thtre de lOpra), La Lune III/60 (28 April 1867).

GALLI-MARI [fig. 10]. The face of Madame Galli-Mari, a French mezzo, was shown being blackened
with a brush in preparation for her trouser role as Friday in Offenbachs Robinson Cruso. The opera opened
on 23 November 1867 at the Opra-Comique, and the drawing appeared on 1 December. It was Offenbachs
second effort to earn success at this theater, and unfortunately it was a comparative failure. The accompanying article in La Lune waxes eloquent about Galli-Maris bodily and vocal attributes, and ends by saying,

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710. Andr Gill, Mme Ugalde, rle du Prince Charmant dans Cendrillon, La Lune III/64 (26 May 1867) Rossini,
La Lune III/70 (6 July 1867) Les jolies actrices de Paris, La Lune III/86 (27 October 1867) Mme Galli-Mari, rle
de Vendredi, dans Robinson Cruso, La Lune III/91 (1 December 1867).

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1114. Andr Gill, Le couple Montrouge (Thtre des Folies-Marigny), La Lune IV/97 (10 January 1868) Lclipse
et la censure, Lclipse IV/161 (26 November 1871) Niniche, rle de Mme Judic aux Varits [M. Louis Veuillot],
La Lune rousse II/64 (24 February 1878) Louis Veuillot, La Lune III/59 (21 April 1867).

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elle excelle porter le pantalon. On sen est aperu dans Khaled de Lara, on sen convaincra dans
Vendredi de Robinson. Daucuns de mes confrres affirment quelle a d civilizer ce rle. Cest grand
dommage, en verit. Jaurais aim le lui voir jouer tout fait en sauvage.16

MONTROUGE [fig. 11]. Madame Montrouge and her husband hold hands on the serinette, a popular toy
of the period, and turn to mechanical music. Madame Montrouge, under her maiden name of Mac, was in
Offenbachs original troupe when he opened the Bouffes-Parisiens in 1855. Her husband was a performer
and an impresario.
TIP-TOE THROUGH THE CENSORS [fig. 12]. A self-portrait of Gill is a reference to the censorship issues.
Drawing musicians usually did not bring the disapproval of the censors; drawing politicians did. Yet Gills
goal as a journalist was to make a statement with his pictures, and making political statements is central to
good journalism. Ducking the censors became a favorite pastime. One way to avoid censorship was to picture
a historical figure, or a fictional figure with just enough current interest to give it a kick. Offenbach did such
things in his operas, using myths to make statements about current Parisian politics and society. Gill used
a different approach picturing one person in the guise of another. Though the reactionary journalist Louis
Veuillot had given oral permission at one time for publishing a caricature of him, he was not pleased with
his likeness when it came out and Gill was fined [fig. 14]. Some years later Gill took a revenge by publishing
a new picture.
JUDIC [fig. 13]. Gill wrote to the actress Anna Judic, playing the popular title role in Boullards Niniche,
and asked if he could draw a caricature of her. I have had a bad hand for a couple of weeks, he wrote and
apologized that the drawing might not absolutely resemble her.17 Regardless, she was happy to give her
permission, which was published along with the drawing.
In a like manner, in November of 1867, Gill pictured a popular fictional character in his front page
drawing for La Lune. All of Paris recognized in the drawing the features of the emperor. This issue worked
its way through the political and censorship machinery, and two months later La Lune was shut down by the
government. A mere week later a new publication appeared called Lclipse! referencing the eclipse of the
moon. The page two article in the first issue of Lclipse explains further: there was once a wonderful
newspaper that circumstances caused to disappear. The publishers wished to replace the newspaper with
something even more wonderful, and to do so applied to the staff of La Lune, who willingly lent them, quote,
ses bureaux, ses vendeurs, ses abonns, ses primes et les traits qui lui attachaient des dessinateurs et une
rdaction.18 Perhaps the censors were caught napping or simply washed their hands of the subterfuge, but
in fact Lclipse was not stopped from publication and continued for another eight years.
DUPUSI AND SCHNEIDER [fig. 15]. For the first issue of Lclipse Gill chose to illustrate two singers, Jos
Dupuis and Hortense Schneider, singing Offenbachs Barbe-bleu, which had first been produced several years
earlier at the Varits and was being revived at this time. At the bottom of the caricature is the commentary:
Tout le monde connat cette farce: BarbeBleue pourfend des pouses qui se retrouvent vivantes en
rsum.19 Charles Fontane in his work on Gills caricatures, notes that comme les pouses qui se retrouvent
bien portantes aprs avoir t sabres, les collaborateurs de la Lune se retrouvent lclipse.20
AUBER [fig. 16]. Daniel-Franos-sprit Auber was represented as the Greek god Terminus, complete with
a reed pipe, a conductors baton, and a bevy of doves to conduct. The reed pipe lists some of the elderly
Aubers most famous opera-comiques. Several weeks before, Aubers newest opera, Le premier jour de bonheur
had been produced to great success (15 February 1868). The page two article in Lclipse treats us to a verbal
description of Auber sleeping at the opera: il sen donne toute joie et toute franchise, la paupire
hermiquement close, le nez sifflant comme une locomotive et le menton enfonc dans lestomac,21 and
comments on Aubers tendency to be a ladys man, which explains the bevy of doves in this caricature.
NILSSON [fig. 17]. Christine Nilsson, a Swedish soprano, had just created the role of Ophlie in Ambroise
Thomass Hamlet at the Paris Opra. Shortly after this Thomas succeeded Auber as director of the Paris
Conservatoire. The accompanying article waxes poetic about Ophlie:

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1920. Andr Gill, As-tu djeun? Capoul, Lclipse II/61 (21 March 1869) 20. Richard Wagner,
Lclipse II/65 (18 April 1869).

1518. Andr Gill, Dupuis & Mlle Schneider, reprise de Barbe Bleue aux Varits, Lclipse I/1 (26 January 1868)
Auber, Lclipse I/6 (1 March 1868) Mlle Nilsson (Ophlie), Lclipse I/11 (5 April 1868) Herv, compositeurauteur-acteur etc., etc., etc., role de Chilpric aux Folies-dramatiques, Lclipse I/42 (8 November 1868).

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1920. Andr Gill, As-tu djeun? Capoul, Lclipse II/61 (21 March 1869) 20. Richard Wagner,
Lclipse II/65 (18 April 1869).

Ophlie, Ophlie! tu ne mapparatras plus que sous les traits dlicats et touchants de Christine
Nilsson! Ophlie! Te voil bien telle que je tavais rve! Avec tes yeux limpides et profonds, couleur
daigue marine, et ton aurole de cheveux blonds, de ce blond que prend la neige sous les rayons timides du soleil boral. Ta tte pensive, potique, o rien dimpur, on le sent, ne peut se voir jamais, o
la candeur la plus virginale clate, se balance sur ton col flexible, pendant que tu chantes ce chant doux
et navrant des jeunes filles que la Mort, la terrible mre, vint bercer dans ses bras toujours avides.22

HERV [fig. 18]. The caricature dedicated to Herv, Gill entitled Herv, compositeur, auteur, acteur, etc.,
etc., reflecting his multifaceted activities as author, composer, conductor, actor, buffo tenor and producer.23
Hervs opera Chilpric, with him singing the title role, had begun a run at the Folies Nouvelles two weeks
before the caricature was published. Like Offenbach, Herv established his own theater, the Folies Nouvelles.
Because of a Napoleonic decree which had never been repealed, every theater in Paris had a special genre
prescribed to it by law.24 Hervs license allowed him to produce only one-act shows with two characters,
although Herv tweaked these restrictions from time to time. In one production, for example, he augmented
the two characters on stage with a singing corpse, and argued that this was permitted because a corpse
cannot be considered a character. The public enjoyed Hervs antics. At the beginning of 1869 while Chilpric
was playing at one theater, Offenbachs La Perichole was having a run at another. Elsewhere in Paris was
playing a parody of the two called Chilperichole.
CAPOUL [fig. 19]. Victor Capoul, a French tenor, played the title role in Offenbachs Vert-vert, which had
opened at the Opra-Comique on 10 March 1869, eleven days before this caricature was published. A book
about Gill written in the 1920s comments on each of his caricatures, and notes cattily about Capoul: Il nous
est impossible de dire si cet artiste avait le moindre talent, tous les journaux de lpoque que nous avons
dpouills ne parlant de lui qu propos de ses moustaches et de la forme de ses faux cols.25 Though we do
see a collar, no mustaches are in evidence in this drawing. The lack is explained by a contemporary article,
which bemoans the fact that Capoul had recently sacrificed his mustaches for his role as the parrot in Vert224

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2122. Andr Gill, Mesdames Tho & Judic, Lclipse VII/288 (3 May 1874) 22. Le roi Vlan, Lclipse VIII/368 (14
November 1875).

vert.26 Capoul as a parrot is balanced on an urn that is inscribed: Hic jacent moustaches de Vert-Vert. Lugete
Veneres Cupidinesque.27 Gill uses the first line of a Catullus lament to a dead sparrow to illustrate the
publics sadness at the loss of the moustaches.
WAGNER [fig. 20]. In the caricature of Wagner, Gill drew the composer using a hammer to pierce a large
ear drum with his notes, complete with dripping gore. The 1861 production of Tannhuser at the Paris Opra
had not gone well, and Wagner was still receiving, almost a decade later plenty of criticism in France for his
modernism. Two days before this drawing appeared in April of 1869, a new production of Rienzi had been
launched at the Thtre Lyrique.
After the Wagner drawing of 1869 Gills recourse to musical subjects declined sharply and the next musical drawing did not appear until 1874. Music may not have seemed as important as politics, for the year
1870 saw the end of the Second Empire in France, when the Franco-Prussian war put Paris under siege. A
council called the Paris Commune was elected out of chaos and served for several months until it too was
overthrown to make way for the Third Republic. Symbolically this political upheaval spelled the end of the
era of operetta. In reality, the culture of the Second Empire remained alive beyond its political demise.
THO AND JUDIC [fig. 21]. When he turned again to a music subject in 1874, Gill did a caricature that
Charles Fontane characterizes thus: Pendant que la politique chme, le thtre bat son plein avec Offenbach
qui bat la mesure de Bagatelle28 et de Pomme dApi, aux Bouffes-Parisiens.29 The singers on the two-headed
cat are Louis Tho, la blonde, and Anna Judic, la brune, fierce competitors in Offenbachs troupe of female
singers. The commentary goes on to say:
Offenbach, se mit dans la tte doprer ce miracle sans exemple dans lhistoire du thtre: de faire jouer
sur la mme scne les deux divas qui sont devenues, grce sa baguette magique, les deux meilleures
amies du monde.30

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2324. Andr Gill, Les thtres de Paris, Le Palais-Royal, Lclipse VIII/370 (28 November 1875). Les thtres de Paris, Les
Varits, Lclipse VIII/373 (19 December 1875).

BCHRISTIAN [fig. 22]. Another Offenbach singer is Christian, who had opened at the Thtre de la Gat
in Offenbachs fairy tale opera, Le Voyage dans la Lune, the previous month. Apparently the means of locomotion for the main character to reach the moon was a twenty league long cannon, so here is Christian
pictured with a somewhat shortened version.
PANACHE [fig. 23] and VART [fig. 24].The final two caricatures appeared within the next month in 1875
and are tributes to the actors in several Paris theaters. The first shows a group of character actors that
performed a show called Panache, at the Palais-Royal: Geoffroy, Brasseur, Hyacinthe, Lassouche, and
Lhritier. The second group includes character actors that played at the Varits: Lonce, Berthelier, Coquelin
Cadet, Dupuis, Pradeau and Baron. Some of these were truly talented comedians who reportedly could send
the audience into helpless laughter. Lence, the actor in glasses on the left side, played in drag the female
role of Mme. Balandard in Offenbachs Monsieur Choufleuri. One elderly wealthy and presumably myopic member of the audience fell for [her] and sent flowers and an invitation to dinner. He was rather put
out when a bespectacled gentleman turned up at the restaurant.31 A review called Btises dhier was playing
at the Varites during the week of this drawings publication.
In the proceeding collection of caricatures, Gill chose to do take-offs of musician, and he times the publication of the drawings to coincide with current productions or events in Paris. The caricatures illustrate the
double standard in censorship issues in Paris at the time, where there was freedom in the written word while
drawings were censored. Andr Gill wrote and drew for a few more years, using, in the words of a writer
from Lclipse, la pointe du crayon et le bec de la plume to create a fine et dcente ironie rest fidle
au bon gout, au choix piquant et juste des sujets et lexcellence des procds dexcution.32
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25. A. Machaux after the photograph of Disderi, Andr Gill in 1867. From: Charles
Fontane, Un matre de la caricature: Andr Gill, 18401885 (Paris: ditions de LIbis,
[1927]), vol. 1, opposite p. 50.

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NOTES
1
Siegfried Kracauer, Orpheus in Paris:Offenbach and the Paris
of His Time, transl. by Gwenda David and Eric Mosbacher (New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1938), 19-20.
2
Ibid., 137.
3
Star, Adelina et Carlotta Patti, La Lune II/38 (25 November 1866), 2.
4
La Lune II/38, [1]. Madamoiselles, why do you migrate so
far and so often from our Paris. Oh, those wretched wings!
5
Semaine thatrale, Le Mnestrel XXXIII/50:1050 (11 November 1866), [3].
6
Charles Fontane, Un matre de la caricature: And. Gill, 1840
1885 (Paris: ditions de LIbis, [1927]), vol. 1, 188. Upon her
arrival in Paris, Patti went to visit Rossini and, wanting to make
the maestro judge the progress that she made during the preceding season, she sat at the piano and cooed with her cool voice
one of the songs of his opera: Le Sige de Corinthe. When she had
finished twittering. Rossini approached Adelina very tenderly,
and said to her with his sweet smile: You have sung marvelously, my dear child; who, then, wrote this piece?
7
Robert Justin Goldstein, Approval First, Caricature Second: French Caricaturists, 185281, The Print Collectors Newsletter XIX/2 (MayJune 1988), 48-50: 48.
8
Ibid., 48.
9
La Lune III/44 (6 January 1867), [1]. Since you desire it,
monsieur, I authorize you to do a take-off of me in triple time.
10
Fontane, Un matre de la caricature, vol. 1, 191. on the
stage, what a transfiguration! Her gray eyes are illuminated; it
seems as though all of the flames of the footlights are mirrored
there. . . . There are words which she flings as one would give a
kiss. Her nostrils quiver, swell, dilate and shudder with voluptuous impatience, which translates all that her mouth cannot say.
11
Jean-Claude Yon, Jacques Offenbach (s.l.: Gallimard, 2000),
339.
12
Ernest dHervilly, Marie Sass, La Lune III/60 (28 April
1867), 2. Marie Sass is, for the moment, and rightly so, the singer
most in vogue in Paris, beside the petite Patti, the angel of the
treble clef.
13
La Lune III/70 (6 July 1867), [1]. Mister Polo. I agree with
pleasure to the publication of my caricature in your journal, and
am happy to see that the Singe de Pesaro is not forgotten.
14
Herbert Weinstock, Rossini: A Biography (New Yok: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1968), 350.
15
Semaine thatrale, Le Mnestrel XXXIV/47:1099 (20
October 1867), [3], mentions a reading of Aubers opera preliminarily titled Hlne, later Le premier jour de bonheur. Marie-Roze
played a major role. La pice sera reprsente dans le courant
de lhiver.
16
Star, M. Galli-Mari, La Lune III/91 (1 December 1867),
2. She excels in pants roles. One noticed it when she played
Khaled in Lara and one will be convinced of it when she plays
Friday in Robinson. My friends say that she had to civilize the role.
Thats too bad, in truth. I would have liked to see her play a
complete savage.
17
Goldstein, Approval First, Caricature Second, 49.
18
Au public, Lclipse I/1 (26 January 1868), 2. its offices,

228

its salespeople, its subscribers, its bonuses, and the contracts that
were attached to the cartoonists, and the editorial staff.
19
Lclipse I/1 (26 January 1868), [1]. All the world knows
this farce: in sum, Bluebeard kills his wives who return alive.
20
Fontane, Un matre de la caricature, vol. 1, 237. like the
wives who find themselves in good health after having been
slashed, the collaborators of La Lune find themselves at
LEclipse.
21
Paul Mahalin, M. Auber, Lclipse I/6 (1 March 1868),
2. he gives into it with every joy and every freedom, hermetically closed eyelids, nose sniffling like a locomotive and chin sunk
into his stomach.
22
Le cousin Jacques, Ophlie-Nilsson, Lclipse I/11 (5
April 1868), 2. Ophelia, you appear to me now only in the delicate and touching features of Christine Nilsson. Ophelia, as I
have dreamt of you. With your limpid and deep eyes, the color of
aquamarine, and your aureole of blonde hair, blonde as the snow
in the timid gleam of the northern sun. Your pensive head, poetic,
where nothing impure can ever be seen, where the most
virginal candor shines, all balanced on your flexible neck, while
you sing the sweet and heart-rending song of young women
whom death, the terrible mother, comes to rock in her ever-eager
arms.
23
Andrew Lamb, Herv, The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians (2nd ed., London: Macmillan, 2001), vol. 11,
449.
24
Kracauer, Orpheus in Paris, 138.
25
Fontane, Un matre de la caricature, vol. 1, 272. It is impossible to say if this artist had the least amount of talent. All the
period newspapers that we have dug through cant speak of him
without mentioning his mustaches and the form of his detachable
collars.
26
Vert-Vert lOpra-Comique, Le Mnestrel XXXVI/15:
1172 (14 March 1869), [6].
27
Lclipse II/61 (21 March 1869), [1]. Here lie the moustaches of Vert-Vert. Lament Venuses and Cupids.
28
H. Moreno, Semaine thatrale et musicale, Le Mnestrel
XL/25:2288 (24 May 1874), [4] has section on Bagatelle mentioning
Judic and also Theo.
29
Fontane, Un matre de la caricature, vol. 2, 56. When politics is closed for business, the theatre is in full swing with Offenbach who keeps time in Bagatelle and in Pomme dApi at the
Bouffes-Parisiens.
30
Fontane, Un matre de la caricature, vol. 2, 56. Offenbach
got it into his head to perform this miracle without precedent in
the history of the theater: having the two divas play on the same
stage, two divas who have become, thanks to his magic wand, the
two best friends in the world.
31
Peter Gammond, Offenbach (London: Omnibus Press,
1980), 65.
32
Au public, Lclipse I/1 (26 January 1868), 2. the tip of
the pencil and the point of the quill a keen and decent irony
having stayed true to good taste, to piquant and just choices of
subjects, and to excellence of execution.

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TITLE: ANDR%E GILL AND MUSICIANS IN PARIS IN THE

1860S AND 1870S: CARICATURES
SOURCE: Music in Art 34 no1/2 Spr/Fall 2009
PAGE(S): 215-28
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