André Gill

[1] Gill began illustrating for Le Journal Amusant, but he became known for his work for the weekly four-sheet newspaper La Lune, edited by Francis Polo, in which he drew portraits for a series entitled The Man of the Day.

Gill drew portrait caricatures of Sarah Bernhardt, Otto von Bismarck, Émile Zola, Victor Hugo, Nadar, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Adelina Patti, Charles Dickens, and Richard Wagner.

His fame won him entry into the bohemian artistic world of Paris; Gill met Charles Cros and Paul Verlaine.

In September 1871, Gill caricatured the statesman Adolphe Thiers, who became his favorite target in L'Éclipse, which had resumed publication in June 1871.

L'Éclipse, which disappeared after 1876, was replaced by the periodical La Lune rousse ("The Red Moon") (1876–1879), of which Gill served as the editor.

On 29 July 1881, France changed its censorship laws, allowing that "any newspaper or periodic writing can be published, without preliminary authorization and deposit of guarantee."

Gill was named curator of the Musée du Luxembourg on 15 May 1871, in which capacity he reassembled the scattered collections of art and reestablished the museum of sculpture.

The group's members included Gill, Honoré Daumier, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Eugène Pottier, Jules Dalou, and Manet.

Gill succumbed in 1880 to mental illness and died five years later, May Day, 1885, at the asylum of Charenton with only Emile Cohl, friend and colleague, at his side.