Joseph Hémard was the leader in adding humorous illustrations to French law codes. However, he was not the only one, or even the first. The tradition began with the French Revolution and continues to the present. The Lillian Goldman Law Library has a number of examples in its Rare Book Collection. In some of them, the legal text has been converted into verse. Many others follow Hémard's lead in juxtaposing hilarious visual commentary with the dry-as-dust legal text.

This exhibit is on display in conjunction with the Rare Book Collection's main exhibit for Fall 2012, "'And then I drew for books': The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard."

Code de la route: texte officiel et complet / illustrations en couleurs de Dubout (Paris: Maurice Gonon, 1956). Acquired with the Gary and Brian Bookman Literature and Arts Fund.

"Laughing at Law Codes: A French Tradition," curated by Mike Widener, is on display through Dec. 20, 2012, in Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

We thank the following people for their help in organizing and mounting this exhibit:

• Shana Jackson
  Lillian Goldman Law Library
  
  
• Liliane McClenning
  Lillian Goldman Law Library
  
  
• Emma Molina Widener
  Adjunct Lecturer, Southern Connecticut State University

WORKS ABOUT JOSEPH HÉMARD

Hémard, Joseph. Joseph Hémard: A Short Autobiography. Paris: H. Babou & J. Kahane; New York: Brentano's, 1929. "With a critical study by Marcel Valotaire, and a portrait of Hémard by Joseph Hémard." "Bibliography of books illustrated by Joseph Hémard": p. 41-[43].

"Joseph Hémard" (Lambiek Comiclopedia).

"Joseph Hémard" (Wikipedia).

Joseph Hémard. This website, in French, features a detailed timeline of  Hémard's life, photos of Hémard, a bibliography of 125 books illustrated by  Hémard, and examples of Hémard's paintings.

Katz, Farley P. "The Art of Taxation: Joseph Hémard's Illustrated Tax Code", Tax Lawyer 60:1 (Fall 2006), 163-172. Also available online.

Teissier-Ensminger, Anne. La fortune esthétique du Code civil des Français. Paris: Éditions La Mémoire du Droit, 2004.

Teissier-Ensminger, Anne. "La loi au figuré: trois illustrateurs du Code Pénal français." In La Justice en images (Frédéric Chauvaud & Solange Vernois, eds. Paris: CREDHESS, 2004), 277-291.

POCHOIR

Vibrant Visions: Pochoir Prints in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library

The Art of the Pochoir Book (University of Cincinnati, Archives and Rare Books Library)

"'And then I drew for books': The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard," curated by Farley P. Katz and Mike Widener, is on display Sept. 15 - Dec. 15, 2012, in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

"I like work. I like idleness. I like all that I know (very little). I like on trust all that I know not (a very great deal). I like reading, good wine, talking to my friends (my wife says that I talk too much; she may be right). I like town, I like the country, the sea, and the mountains. I like travelling, sea voyages, boating, the theatre, walking, dancing, motoring, swimming, music, animals, pictures, flowers, and the sound of the horn. 'Then you like everything?' Yes, Madam, everything. That is why I am never bored. My conduct is seemly, my digestion still good. I pay landlord and taxes – I have no alternative! – and I never forget to vote."

-- Joseph Hémard, Joseph Hémard, a Short Autobiography (Paris, 1929).

Joseph Hémard: A Short Autobiography. 1929. Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library. Hémard's self-portrait.

"'And then I drew for books': The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard," curated by Farley P. Katz and Mike Widener, is on display Sept. 15 - Dec. 15, 2012, in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

Two years after illustrating the French family code, Hémard figured, why not illustrate a pharmacy manual? In 1927, his publisher, René Kieffer, published Formulaire Magistral, in identical format to the Code Civil, consisting of an illustrated technical manual of medicinal formulas. These included medicines for curing tapeworms, venereal disease, and other wretched maladies, which gave Hémard incomparable material for crude and disgusting, but, above all, hilarious illustrations.

Formulaire Magistral. 1927. Pochoir. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

Hémard's interest in medicine led him to illustrate (and even write) other medical works, including a promotional pamphlet concerning the prostate.

Joseph Hémard, Physiologie de la Prostate. 1937. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

Scènes de la Vie Médical. 1939. Pochoir? Collection of Farley P. Katz.

Hémard's apparent willingness to accept any paying commission produced illustrations for a great variety of miscellaneous works including calendars, utility promotions, menus, letterheads, and bookplates. Shown here is Les Reves la Destinée, a "dream book," in which the reader can find the meaning of his dreams (possibly authored by Hémard).

Les Reves la Destinée [dream book]. Circa 1931. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

Finally, we have Hémard's own bookplate, depicting himself as a naked caveman pondering an open book he has chanced upon.

Bookplate of Joseph Hémard. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

"'And then I drew for books': The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard," curated by Farley P. Katz and Mike Widener, is on display Sept. 15 - Dec. 15, 2012, in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

Hémard must have loved children as he made numerous drawings of them and also illustrated, and even wrote, books specifically intended for children. These include ABCs, coloring books, and fairy tales.

In Trente Tableaux d'Historie de France (1912), an early work of Hémard's, he illustrated thirty events in France's history, from the legend of the founding of Marseilles in 600 B.C. to the Paris Commune of 1871. The image below depicts King Louis IX rendering justice beneath the oak of Vincennes, apparently in the case of a badminton game gone terribly wrong.

Joseph Hémard, Trente Tableaux d’Historie de France. 1912. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

André Lichtenberger, Le Petit Chaperon Vert [Little Green Riding Hood]. 1922. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

For Pergaud's delightful novel of warring armies of young boys entirely unaffected by civilization, La Guerre des Boutons [War of the Buttons], Hémard made the definitive illustrations in vibrant pochoir.

Louis Pergaud, La Guerre des Boutons. 1927. Pochoir. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

Curnonsky [Maurice Edmond Sailland], Deux Nocturnes. 1927. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

Charles Perrault, Contes de Ma Mère l’Oye [Mother Goose]. 1930. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

"'And then I drew for books': The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard," curated by Farley P. Katz and Mike Widener, is on display Sept. 15 - Dec. 15, 2012, in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

Hémard illustrated a great number of classics of French literature, including works such as Le Malade Imaginaire (1921), Gargantua et Pantagruel (1922), Jacques Le Fataliste (1922), Cyrano de Bergerac (1927) and Aucassin et Nicolette (1936), as well as more modern titles. Many of his illustrations are set in France's past, from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, and filled with scenes of courtiers, knights, soldiers, peasants, drunks, animals, and women in various stages of undress. The selection here is representative.

Honoré de Balzac, D'ung Paouvre qui avoit nom le Vieulx-par-Chemins. 1914. Pochoir. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

François Villon, Les Regrets de la Belle Heaulmiere. 1921. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

Anatole France, La Rôtisserie de la Reine Pédauque. 1923. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

Théophile Gautier, Le Capitaine Fracasse. 1926. Pochoir. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

Georges Courteline, Boubouroche Madelon Margot. 1927. Pochoir. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

"'And then I drew for books': The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard," curated by Farley P. Katz and Mike Widener, is on display Sept. 15 - Dec. 15, 2012, in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

In 1925 someone, probably Hémard or his publisher, René Kieffer, came up with the brilliant idea of publishing an illustrated version of the part of the Code Civil of France containing the family law statutes that govern marriage, divorce, children, adoption, and other aspects of personal life. Hémard took the opportunity to produce witty and lively vignettes of individuals caught up in various family dilemmas. The book was published as a limited edition on special paper, with the illustrations done in pochoir.

Code civil: Livre premier, Des personnes. 1925. Pochoir. Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library. Gift of Farley P. Katz.

In about 1940 (the book is undated), Hémard moved on to the French Penal Code. Those statutes gave him even more material to work with, and the illustrations became increasingly wild and filled with black humor.

Code Penal. Circa 1940. Pochoir. Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library. Illustration for Article 319 (involuntary manslaughter).

Among Hémard's more pedestrian commissions were annual promotional pamphlets for the French National Lottery (1937-1942). Shown here is the 1938 Règlement de la Loterie National, setting forth the official rules.

Règlement de la Loterie National. 1938. Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library. Gift of Farley P. Katz.

In 1944, while Paris was still occupied by the Germans, Hémard produced his greatest legal achievement, the Code Général des Impôts Directs et Taxes Assimilées (the French Tax Code), fully illustrated, colored in pochoir and published as a lavish limited edition for collectors. The illustrations are larger and more numerous than in the earlier works, the puns more outrageous and the humor more broad. His Code Général des Impôts is one of the most accomplished works of legal humor ever published.

Code Général des Impôts Directs et Taxes Assimilées. 1944. Pochoir. No. 679 of 800 numbered copies. Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library. Gift of Farley P. Katz. Illustration for Art. 73, error in the application of tax. The translation of the sign: "The excuse the tax collector hears every day."


"'And then I drew for books': The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard," curated by Farley P. Katz and Mike Widener, is on display Sept. 15 - Dec. 15, 2012, in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

Joseph Hémard's life, and art, was repeatedly affected by war. He was captured shortly after World War I began and spent the remainder of the war in a German prisoner-of-war camp. During his captivity, he drew his surroundings, fellow prisoners, and guards and published those with his reminiscences in 1919 as Chez les Fritz [Fritz's House].

Joseph Hémard, Chez les Fritz. 1919. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

On the cover of another book about war, published on the eve of World War II, Hémard painted a lonely private on guard.

Amédée Pavard, Monsieur Pavard s’en va-t-en Guerre. 1939. Vellum binding with color drawing by Hémard. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

Hémard remained in Paris during the occupation, after which he co-authored and illustrated a pamphlet of humorous stories from the war years, Gavroche Sous la Botte [Citizen Under the Boot]. Shown is an illustration for a story in which Hitler attempts to enter Heaven, but is told that he must first paint "Juif" (Jew) on each star in the universe.

M. Fougerole & Joseph Hémard, Gavroche Sous la Botte. 1945. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

After the liberation of Paris in 1944, Hémard produced several anti-Hitler joke postcards. In the one shown here, the matron Germania scolds Hitler for allowing the Allies to kick his rear end.

Joseph Hémard, Anti-Hitler post cards. After August 25, 1944. Collection of Farley P. Katz.

"'And then I drew for books': The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard," curated by Farley P. Katz and Mike Widener, is on display Sept. 15 - Dec. 15, 2012, in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

Joseph Hémard was born in 1880, in a small town near Paris. He was a prolific artist, designing costumes, theatre sets, patterns for printed textiles, book bindings, posters, menus, letterheads, and even a façade for a bar in the 1925 Paris Exposition of Decorative Art.

Hémard's lasting fame, however, lies in his book illustrations – always with a distinctly French character, usually comic, and often mildly erotic. He was probably the most prolific book illustrator in the first half of the twentieth century in France, if not the entire world. Many of his illustrations were executed in pochoir, a hand stenciling process producing intense, gorgeous colors still vibrant after three-quarters of a century.

A great number of books feature Hémard's comic illustrations, including the classics of French literature and many otherwise humorless works of nonfiction such as the French Tax Code (pictured at right), a pharmacy manual, and promotional booklets for the French National Lottery. Hémard was himself a prolific author, writing many of the books he illustrated including a children's history of France and textbooks of grammar, French history and arithmetic. Hémard also wrote novels and songs, and, in his final years, created crossword puzzles.

It is apparent from his drawings that Hémard loved all that he encountered in life – the young and the old, the rich and the vagrant, children and dogs, but above all, women.

Hémard died in Paris in 1961. After World War II, his popularity at home waned. He remains virtually unknown in the United States. In recent years, however, interest in Hémard has increased in France where his art has been the subject of exhibitions and scholarship.

The title of this exhibition is taken from a brief autobiographical essay in which Hémard first discusses a number of supposed ancestors, devotes two paragraphs to his childhood, and then states: “And then I drew for books.”

Farley P. Katz
San Antonio 2012

"'And then I drew for books': The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard," curated by Farley P. Katz and Mike Widener, is on display Sept. 15 - Dec. 15, 2012, in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

Joseph Hémard was one of the most prolific book illustrators of the 20th century, and certainly one of the funniest, yet he remains virtually unknown outside of his native France. Farley P. Katz, a San Antonio tax lawyer and a leading collector of Hémard’s works, is working to change this. Katz will speak on “The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard” on October 5 at the Yale Law School.

The talk is in conjunction with an exhibition at Yale’s Lillian Goldman Law Library, curated by Katz and Mike Widener, the library’s Rare Book Librarian. The exhibition features items from Katz’s collection and books that he donated to the Law Library.

What sets  Hémard apart from other illustrators are the books that one would not normally associate with illustrations. Chief among these are French law codes. Alongside the dry legalese of French tax law are Hémard’s hilarious visual puns and lampoons of tax collectors and government officials.

Katz will deliver his illustrated talk on Hémard at 1:00 p.m. on October 5, in Room 128 of the Yale Law School (127 Wall Street, New Haven, CT). The talk is free and open to the public.

The exhibit, “‘And then I drew for books’: The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard,” is on display until December 15 in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery of the Lillian Goldman Law Library (Level L2 in the Yale Law School). It displays two dozen of Hémard’s works. An online version of the exhibit will appear in the Yale Law Library Rare Books Blog.

For more information, contact Mike Widener, Rare Book Librarian, at (203) 432-4494 or mike.widener[at]yale.edu.

 A Joseph Hémard illustration from Code général des impôts directs et taxes assimilées (Paris: Editions Littéraires et Artistiques; Librairie "Le Triptyque", 1944), page 218.

It would take a genius to illustrate one of the most boring books imaginable, a code of tax laws, and create a comic tour-de-force. That genius was Joseph Hémard (1880-1961), who in his lifetime was probably France's most prolific book illustrator. His illustrations are the focus of the latest exhibit in the Yale Law Library, "'And then I drew for books': The Comic Art of Joseph Hémard."

The exhibit, on display until December 15, is curated by Farley P. Katz and Michael Widener. Katz, a tax attorney from San Antonio, has built one of the world's finest collections of Hémard's works. Widener is the Rare Book Librarian at the Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Hémard's illustrations have a distinctly French character, usually comic, and often mildly erotic. Many of his illustrations were executed in pochoir, a hand stenciling process producing intense, gorgeous colors still vibrant after three-quarters of a century.

The exhibit showcases eight of the 183 illustrations in Hémard's Tax Code, donated to the Yale Law Library by Katz, along with two of the other three law books on display from the library's Rare Book Collection.

The other 19 titles on view are all from Katz's personal collection. They include children's books and some of the many classics of French literature that Hémard illustrated, such as works by Balzac and Anatole France. Items on war include Hémard's own pictorial account of his time as a German prisoner in World War I, and a set of anti-Hitler postcards. Hémard even illustrated a pharmacy manual and a pamphlet on the prostate.

The exhibition's title comes from Hémard's tongue-in-cheek autobiography. Following a long, rambling description of supposed ancestors, he devotes two paragraphs to his early life, and finishes with: "And then I drew for books."

The exhibit is open to the public, 9am-10pm daily, September 15 - December 15, 2012 in the Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School. It will also go online here in the Yale Law Library Rare Books Blog.

On October 5, Katz will give an exhibit talk at 1:00 p.m. in Room 128 of the Yale Law School. The talk is also open to the public.

-- MIKE WIDENER
Rare Book Librarian

The poster illustration is from the cover of Code penal: commentaires imagés de Joseph Hémard (Paris: Editions Littéraires de France, ca. 1940), Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.