André François

(1915–2005), illustrator, born in Romania. His real name is André Farkas. At Cassandre's School of Fine Arts and Poster Design, the work of Cassandre strongly influenced François's choice of a vocation. When he arrived in Paris in 1934, he was welcomed as a student in the school of the great poster designer. The graphic arts, painting, and sculpture are some of the varied talents of André François, well known for both his artistic assignments and his publicity posters. As a graphic artist, he has contributed to such magazines as Punch, The New Yorker, and Graphis (Switzerland). He has illustrated texts of Jacques Prévert (Lettres des îles Baladar, 1952; English trans., Baladar's Island Letters) and Jean L'Anselme (On vous l’a dit, 1955; English trans., They Said It to You), but one of his most important contributions to the field of children's literature is the picture book Les Larmes de crocodile (1956; English trans., The Crocodile Tears). This popular book, published by gallery owner Robert Delpire, remains one of the most original creations in the field. As an object as well as a book, Les Larmes de crocodile is designed with the oblong (three inches by ten inches) format of the box in which the crocodile's tale is encased. This playful feature supports the work's overall expressiveness. Between irony and fancy, François always looks below the surface of things. When he works in the field of publicity, for example, he rarely depicts the subject of the advertisement. His work favors the bestiary, and a strong characteristic of his style is his use of metamorphosis. We meet in François's illustrations mixed animals, humans, and vegetables, as when he draws a reader with a butterfly's head, an image that became the emblem of the French publishing house L’École des loisirs.