Le Rire, or "Laughter," was a successful humor magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 published from October 1894 through the 1950s. Founded in Paris during the Belle Époque

Belle Époque

The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque was a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I. Occurring during the era of the French Third Republic and the German Empire, it was a period characterised by optimism and new technological and medical...

 by Felix Juven, Le Rire appeared as typical Parisians began to achieve more education, income and leisure time. Interest in the arts, culture and politics intensified during the Gay Nineties

Gay Nineties

Gay Nineties is an American nostalgic term that refers to the decade of the 1890s. It is known in the UK as the Naughty Nineties, and refers there to the decade of supposedly decadent art by Aubrey Beardsley, the witty plays and trial of Oscar Wilde, society scandals and the beginning of the...

. Publications like this helped satisfy such curiosity. It was the most successful of all the "Journaux Humoristiques."

The Dreyfus Affair

Dreyfus Affair

The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...

 occurred in 1894 and Le Rire was one of many publications to tap anti-Republican sentiment in wake of that scandal. It was a time in which French governance was frequently characterized by corruption and mismanagement. Government ministers and military officials became frequent targets.

The satirical journal was filled with excellent drawings by prominent artists. It featured full-page chromotypograph

Chromotypograph

Chromotypograph refers to any number of obsolete graphic arts or printing processes which used cold and warm rinse etching baths to create surfaces by which color images could be relief printed from zinc plates in the letterpress manner....

s on both covers and in the centerfold. Many of these pieces are now highly desirable collectible

Collectible

A collectable or collectible is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector . There are numerous types of collectables and terms to denote those types. An antique is a collectable that is old...

s. The most prominent contributor was Théophile Steinlen

Théophile Steinlen

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, frequently referred to as just Steinlen , was a Swiss-born French Art Nouveau painter and printmaker....

. His illustrations were biting caricature

Caricature

A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...

s of the political "jackasses" of the day. Illustrations were contributed by well-known artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...

, Georges Goursat

Georges Goursat

Georges Goursat , known as Sem, was a French caricaturist famous during the Belle Époque.-Youth :Georges Goursat was born and raised in an upper middle-class family of Périgueux...

, René Georges Hermann-Paul

Hermann-Paul

René Georges Hermann-Paul was a French artist. He was born in Paris and died in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.Recent efforts to catalog the work of Hermann-Paul reveal an artist of considerable scope. He was a well-known illustrator whose work appeared in numerous newspapers and periodicals...

, Juan Gris

Juan Gris

José Victoriano González-Pérez , better known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter and sculptor who lived and worked in France most of his life...

, Lucien Metivet, Georges Meunier

Georges Meunier

Georges Meunier was a French professional road bicycle racer. He won two stages in the Tour de France. In 1960, he became French national cyclo-cross champion.- Palmarès :1950...

, Jean-Louis Forain

Jean-Louis Forain

Jean-Louis Forain was a French Impressionist painter, lithographer, watercolorist and etcher.-Overview:Forain was born in Reims, Marne but at age eight, his family moved to Paris. He began his career working as a caricaturist for several Paris journals including Le Monde Parisien and Le rire...

, Adolphe Willette

Adolphe Willette

Adolphe-Léon Willette was a French painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and lithographer. Willette ran as an "anti-semitic" candidate in the 19th arrondisement of Paris for the 1889 elections.-Biography:...

, Joaquín Xaudaró

Joaquín Xaudaró

Joaquín Xaudaró y Echau was a Spanish cartoonist, illustrator, and caricaturist. His humorous depictions of the new technologies of his time –he published a volume of cartoons called The Perils of Flight - serve as an important link between the worlds of nineteenth-century illustration and...

, Leonetto Cappiello

Leonetto Cappiello

Leonetto Cappiello was an Italian poster art designer who lived in Paris. He is now often called 'the father of modern advertising' because of his innovation in poster design...

, Albert Guillaume

Albert Guillaume

Albert Guillaume was a French painter and caricaturist.Born in Paris, France, Albert Guillaume became a leading caricaturist during the Belle Époque. While remembered for his poster art, Guillaume also did oil paintings such as "Soirée parisienne," a portrait of Parisian dinner society...

, Manuel Luque, Jules Grandjouan and Jules-Alexandre Grun

Jules-Alexandre Grün

Jules-Alexandre Grün was a French post-impressionist painter, poster artist, and illustrator.Grun's best known painting is called The Dinner Party was produced in 1911. It was, however, in the fields of poster art and illustration art, for which he was famous...

.

During the music hall

Music hall

Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

 era, cabarets and cafes were crowded with personalities and Parisians could catch glimpses of the stars of the day. Le Rire was there to capture scene for its readers. Its pages depicted the likes of Yvette Guilbert

Yvette Guilbert

Yvette Guilbert was a French cabaret singer and actress of the Belle Époque.-Biography:...

, Polaire

Polaire

Polaire was the stage name used by French singer and actress Émilie Marie Bouchaud .Born at Agha, Algiers, Algeria, according to her memoirs she was one of eleven children of whom only four - Emilie, her two brothers Edmond and Marcel, and a sister, Lucile - survived infancy...

, Jane Avril

Jane Avril

Jane Avril was a French can-can dancer made famous by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec through his paintings. Extremely thin, 'given to jerky movements and sudden contortions', she was nicknamed La Mélinite, after an explosive. -Biography:...

, Réjane

Gabrielle Réjane

Gabrielle Réjane was the stage name of Gabrielle-Charlotte Reju, , a French actress.Born in Paris, the daughter of an actor, she became a pupil of Régnier at the Conservatoire, and took the second prize for comedy in 1874. Her debut was made the next year, during which she played attractively a...

 and even those of popular visitors to the theaters such as Séverine

Severine

Severine or Séverine can refer to:* the nom de plume of the French journalist Caroline Rémy de Guebhard* a pseudonym of the Hungarian model Eve Angel...

.

The magazine remained in business for almost sixty years, closing down in the 1950s and later reappearing for a short time in the 1970s.

External links

• Steinlen.net - A collection of more than 1,000 Steinlen images
• Le Rire Vintage magazines