Paul Thiriat (French, 1868-1943)
Paul Thiriat
French, 1868-1943
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Paul Henri Thiriat, sometimes also called Henri Thiriat, was a French engraver, lithographer, painter and illustrator, active from 1887 to the end of the 1920s. He was a war reporter-illustrator and produced numerous illustrations under the name Claude Whip.
Paul Henri Thiriat was born on December 30, 1868 in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the son of Henri Amédée Thiriat, a wood engraver, and Marie Élisabeth Verpy; the couple lived at 64 rue de Vaugirard.
In March 1889, he enlisted in the French army and became a reservist in March 1892.
Undoubtedly trained by his father, he produced his first engravings under the name of “Henri Thiriat” for L'Illustration (1890) and Le Tour du monde (1892). His production of wood engravings declined from 1896 onwards. From then on, he devoted himself to drawing and watercolors. In 1904, he was in London, and became a correspondent for The Sphere under the name of “Paul Thiriat”.
We know of his covers and drawings for Le Journal illustré, Le Petit Journal, L'Omnibus, La Veillée des chaumières, L'Ouvrier, Mon Bonheur, L'Illustré national, Le Journal rose, Pages folles, Le Monde illustré...
In 1906, he was elected vice-president of the Association de la presse illustrée.
After 1909, he exhibited at the Salon des humoristes under the name of “Claude Whip”.
Mobilized on the front during the First World War, he became a war reporter and produced watercolors signed “Paul Thiriat”, which were fairly realistic testimonies, reproduced in British periodicals such as The Graphic and The Sphere, and in French publications such as Excelsior, Les Annales politiques et littéraires, Le Flambeau, Le Panorama de la guerre, etc.
After the war, he continued his work as a press illustrator (signing Whip or Thiriat), including for children's publications, in L'Aventure, Système D, L'Épatant, le Journal des romans, etc.
He died in Paris on April 11, 1943, in the rue de Bassano. He had married Cécile Jeanne Charoy, with whom he had at least two children, Suzanne Marie Thiriat (1894-1982) and Pierre-Louis Thiriat (1896-1975).