Cham

Cham, the pseudonym assumed by the caricaturist, Amédée de Noé (Cham being the French for Ham, the son of Noah), son of the Comte de Noé by an English mother, and born at Paris in 1819. He studied art under Delaroche, and soon acquired a great reputation as a skilful and witty delineator of the humorous side of Parisian life. In 1843 began his famous connection with the Charivari, in which paper and in the Journal des Pèlerinages he continued to delight his fellow-citizens until close upon his death on 6th September 1879. He was profoundly sceptical, but not unkindly, and obtained, as Edmond About pointed out, the success of an homme d'esprit. His masterpieces were chiefly social rather than political, and among his skits may be mentioned Proudhomana, Bugneurs et Buveurs d'Eau, Souvénirs de Garrison, and L'Exposition de Londres. Several good collections of his comic illustrations have been made—for instance, Douze Années Comiques (1880), with an introduction by L. Halévy, and Les Folies Parisiennes (1883), with an introduction by Gérôme. In Sala's Paris herself again (1882) are a good many specimens of Cham's art.