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The more serious side of Levy's work is beautifully exemplified by this spiritual portrait of Rabbi Elisha the Blind (l'aveugle in French). Although the aged tzadik can not see, and so must be read to, his face is illuminated by the light of the Torah.



Alphonse Lévy was an illustrator, painter and cartoonist, who is famous for his illustrations for and about the Jewish community. Born in Marmoutier, Lévy eventually settled in Paris, where he worked at the atelier of academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. Starting in 1865, he worked as a comical illustrator for magazines like La Lune (a satrical magazine against the regime of Napoleon III), La Rue, La Chronique Illustrée, L'Eclipse, Le Journal Amusant, La Caricature and Le Rire.

Comic art by Alphonse Levy

During the Franco-Prussian war, Lévey satirized both camps in his cartoons for Le Journal Amusant, Le Boulevardier, and Le Petit Journal Pour Rire, which he signed with Saïd around this time. In the early 20th century, he started working on his series of lithographs about Jewish life in the Alsace area. Lévy produced a series of comics for L'Illustré National between 1900 and 1902. Lévy's next comics work appeared in L'Épatant in 1915, 'Les Excentricités de Courbouillon'. Alphonse Lévy passed away in Alger in 1918.

Mucha Cover

Not unlike the Maitre de L'Affiche series, L'Estampe Moderne was a portfolio printed between 1897-98, published by Imprimerie Champenois, Paris, contained 24 monthly portfolios, with four original lithographs in each. Each commissioned only for this series. Some of the contributing artists included Mucha, Rhead, Meunier, Ibels, Steinlen, Willette and Grasset.