J. J. Grandville (Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard) (Born in 1803) was a French caricature artist and lithographer of the 19th Century. J. J. Grandville is actually a pseudonym. He was born in Nancy, France. He chose the name Grandville in line with his father's lead. His father had also adopted the Grandville surname which was used by his grandparent who was a comedian and was using it as a stage name. Grandville's father was a miniature painter and he taught him how to paint and draw. The young artist was less skillful at painting than drawing and demonstrated an early talent for using pencil to create caricatures. Grandville became very obsessive in his drawing habits and covered the walls of his room with his work. Later, he attended school and then did some designing work.
He was designing costumes for a theater troupe, and as his caricaturist skills were growing, lithography came into prevalent use in producing prints for sale for a variety of purposes and uses. Lithography suited his obsessive nature and abilities. Grandville developed a technique that employed cross hatching and more precise lines. He appreciated the propinquity of the process and also appreciated the fact that the work involved “drawing” on the stone – and drawing was his passion. The viewers were eager for his depictions of contemporary events and also by personalities offered by this form of mass media which was new. His other illustrations and caricatures were very popular and they became more fantastical over time.
