Zut (Alfred Le Petit)
French, 1841-1909
Follow
Alfred Le Petit was a French caricaturist, born in Aumale. He studied drawing, painting and photography and began his career as a caricaturist in Rouen. He eventually settled in Paris, where he contributed to the magazine L'Eclipse. In 1870 he founded Le Charge, in which he heavily criticized Napoleon III. He additionally contributed to Le Grelot and Le Charivari and founded Le Pétard and Le Sans-Culotte.
He illustrated 'Gros-Jean et son Curé' (by Auguste Roussel de Merry), 'La Bible Farce' (by Pierre Malvezin) and 'La Vie Drolatique'. Disappointed by the politics of Jules Ferry in the 1880s, Le Petit defended general Boulanger and sided against Dreyfus in his work. He spent his final years making caricatures of tourists on the first floor of the Eiffel tower, and singing and playing the violin in cabarets.