Youth (1863–1900) edit

Georges Goursat was born and raised in an upper-middle-class family from Périgueux.^[4] The wealth inherited from his father at the age of 21^[5] allowed him to sustain a gilded youth.^[6]

In 1888 he self-published his first three albums of caricatures in Périgueux, signing some as "SEM",^[7] allegedly as a tribute^[8] to Amédée de Noé who signed his caricatures for Le Monde illustré as "Cham".^[9]

He settled in Bordeaux from 1890 to 1898.^[10] During this period, he published more albums and his first press caricatures in La Petite Gironde^[11] and discovered the work of Leonetto Cappiello.^[12] His style matured, becoming both simpler and more precise.^[13]

During the same period, he made trips to Paris. In 1891, he designed two posters printed in Jules Chéret's workshop for the singer Paulus.^[12] He published his first caricatures of artists in L'Illustration (Albert Brasseur) and Le Rire (Paulus, Polin and Yvette Guilbert^{[i. 1]}).^[12]

Goursat lived in Marseille from 1898 to 1900,^{[14][i. 2]} where he met Jean Lorrain who convinced him to live in Paris.^[15]

Belle Époque (1900–1914) edit

Goursat arrived in Paris in March 1900 at the time of the Universal Exposition opening.^[16]

He chose horse racing^{[i. 3]} as a way to enter high society.^[16] In June 1900 he self-published his new album Le Turf of caricatures of many prominent Parisian socialites, including Marquess Boni de Castellane, Prince Trubetskoy, Count Clermont-Tonnerre, Baron Alphonse, Gustave de Rothschild, and Polaire.^[16] The album's success made him famous overnight.^[17] In October 1900 he published the album Paris-Trouville with equal success. Goursat published nine other albums before 1913.^[18]

In 1904, Goursat received the Légion d'honneur.^[19] In 1909, he exhibited with the painter Auguste Roubille, first in Paris and then in Monte Carlo and London. The exhibit included a diorama composed of hundreds of wooden figurines "of all the merely Paris celebrities".^[20]

World War I (1914–1918) edit

Goursat was not drafted in World War I as he was over 50 years old at the start of the war.^[21] He nevertheless involved himself as a war correspondent for Le Journal.^[21] Some of his rather "chauvinistic" articles had an "enormous impact".^[22] Ten articles were published in 1917 in Un pékin sur le front. Two other articles were incorporated in the 1923 book La Ronde de Nuit.^[23] In 1916 and 1918 Goursat published two albums of Croquis de Guerre (War Sketches) with a completely different style than his previous work.^[22] He also designed war bond posters.^[24]

Années Folles (1918–1934) edit

After the war, Goursat returned to the kind of caricatures that made him famous. In 1919, he published Le Grand Monde à l'envers (High Society Upside Down).^[25] Around 1923, he published three albums under the general title of Le Nouveau Monde (transl. The New World).^[26] In 1923, he became an officer of the Légion d'honneur.^[27]

In 1929, he was severely impoverished by the economic crisis.^[28] After a heart attack in 1933,^[29] he died in 1934.^[2]

• Bonnelle, Madeleine; Meneret, Marie-José (1979). SEM (in French). Périgueux: Pierre Fanlac. ISBN 2-86577-144-X.
• Dini, Francesca (2006). Boldini, Helleu, Sem : protagonisti e miti della Belle Epoque (in Italian). Skira.

• Website dedicated to Georges Goursat
• Goursat in L'Illustration
• Biography of Goursat
• Description of the diorama