The son of Samuel Steinlen, a Lausanne postal worker, and grandson of a German-born painter, he abandoned his theology studies at the University of Lausanne after two years to pursue art. His training in industrial ornamental design in Mulhouse provided him with the technical foundations he would develop throughout his Parisian career.
Having settled on the hill of Montmartre in 1883 with his wife Émilie, he quickly became part of the bohemian artistic scene. His friendships with Adolphe Willette and Antonio de La Gandara, and his regular visits to the Chat Noir cabaret brought him into contact with the iconic figures of the time. He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1893 and at the Salon des Humoristes.
His social commitment is evident in his work: an opponent of injustice, he depicts street scenes, factories, and mines, giving a visual voice to beggars, workers, scruffy children, and prostitutes. Favoring drawing and pastels, he influenced artists such as Jean Peské and Pablo Picasso with his depiction of everyday life.
Alongside his famous drawings of cats "in all their fantasy," he developed a remarkable body of work in print and poster art. His literary illustrations and collaborations with various humorous journals established his reputation. In 1911, he founded Les Humoristes with Jean-Louis Forain and Charles Léandre.
His libertarian convictions led him to illustrate anarchist works and campaign for artists' unions. In 1915, despite his advanced age, he went to the front to document the conditions of soldiers. In 1917, commissioned by the Artistic Mission to the Armed Forces, he focused his drawings on military misery and the civilian exodus, humanely documenting the horrors of the Great War. He died in 1923 and is buried in the Saint-Vincent cemetery.
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