'Le Crime Ne Paie Pas' episode about 18th-century French criminal 'Cartouche'.
Jacques Pecnard was a French illustrator, painter, engraver and sculptor. During the 1950s and 1960s, he was one of the illustrators for the newspaper features 'Les Amours Célèbres' ("Famous Romances") and 'Le Crime Ne Paie Pas' ("Crime Does Not Pay").
Illustrator
Jacques Pecnard was born in 1922 in Vincennes, Val-de-Marne, a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris. His career in illustration took off in 1940. He notably provided artwork for publications of the interreligious Scouting organization Éclaireurs de France. Later, he was an illustrator for the women's weeklies Elle and Femina, and for the book publishers Hachette, Flammarion, Rouge et Or and Larousse. He also worked extensively in the field of advertising.
Comic strips
During the 1950s and 1960s, Pecnard also drew for the newspaper France-Soir, illustrating installments in the vertical newspaper strip serials by Paul Gordeaux. He was one of the most prominent illustrators for the true romance story feature 'Les Amours Célèbres' (1950-1972). Among the installments he illustrated were 'La Comtesse Tarnowska', 'Max Linder et Jeanne Peters', 'Messaline', 'La Belle Écuyère Jenny de Rahden', 'Le Général Boulanger et Mme de Bonnemains', 'Elisabeth d'Autriche, l'Impératrice Errante', 'Le Secret de Jean Orth', 'Camille et Lucile Desmoulins' and 'Ferdinand Lassalle et Hélène de Doenniges'. He also provided the artwork for the installment 'Balzac et les Femmes', featuring several scantily clad women. In Gordeaux's true crime series 'Le Crime Ne Paie Pas', Pecnard visualized the life of 18th-century bandit Louis-Dominique Cartouche, and drew the installment 'Casque d'Or', about the infamous love triangle between early 20th-century prostitute Amélie Élie and the Apache gang leaders Manda and Leca.
Painter
By the 1970s, Jacques Pecnard had switched to painting, and became known for his illustrations in drypoint engraving, aquatint or lithography. During this period, his services were often requested by publishers of bibliophile works. He was especially known for his several portraits of Charles De Gaulle. The National Library of France commissioned him to create the poster for its 1990 exhibition 'Le Centenaire de Charles de Gaulle' and also exhibited his illustrations with this theme. In 1997, Pecnard produced two portraits of President Jacques Chirac.
In 1991, he participated with a hundred other painters in a major exhibition against the Armenian genocide, 'The Colors of Life', which traveled through all the capitals of Europe.
Recognition
In 1971, Jacques Pecnard was awarded the Press Illustrator Prize for his work on 'Les Amours Célèbres'. In 1996, a retrospective exhibition of his work as a painter and illustrator was organized at the Espace Carpeaux in Courbevoie.
Jacques Pecnard died in 2012 in Montmorency, Val-d'Oise, at age 89. As an artist, he was an influence on Julio Ribera.
Les Amours Célèbres - 'Balzac et les Femmes'.