15. Sir Max Beerbohm
(1872-1956)
Caricature Portrait of the Actor Coquelin Aîné

(click on image to print)
Beerbohm: Coquelin Aîné

Caricature Portrait of the Actor Coquelin Aîné

Original drawing in pen and black ink on thin laid paper laid down on board, titled and signed in ink, 243 x 195 mm. Beerbohm’s caricatures (always signed simply “Max”) are famous, not merely because of their quality, but also because he was famous. Essayist, novelist, drama critic and radio broadcaster, he was friends with Oscar Wilde and his circle, followed in the footsteps of G. B. Shaw at the Saturday Review and, in spite of living in Italy for almost fifty years, knew almost everyone of importance in England. One of his friends was Benoit-Constant Coquelin (1841-1909), known as Coquelin aîné, a French actor called, by the New York Times, “one of the greatest theatrical figures of the age.” He starred in plays by Molière, Dumas, de Banville and many others but his most famous role was in Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, which he played both in France and America, the latter with Sarah Bernhardt as co-star.