Caran d’Ache is the pseudonym of the French satirist and political cartoonist Emmanuel Poiré, who adopted the name from the Russian word karandash, meaning pencil. Born to French parents living in Russia, he settled in France after the death of his father in 1877. Active as a painter and draughtsman of military subjects and as an illustrator, he first came to attention with his drawings on military themes for the periodical La Chronique Parisienne, published under the name ‘Caporal Poiré’.

It was as a cartoonist, however, that Caran d’Ache really came into his own. Beginning around 1866 and continuing over the next twenty years he submitted satirical drawings and caricatures to such popular publications as La Vie Moderne, ...