'Cham'

A carte-de-visite portrait of comte Amédée-Charles-Henri de Noé (1818-1879), professionally known as 'Cham'.

'Cham' was the pseudonym of comte Amédée-Charles-Henri de Noé, who was a successful caricaturist, cartoonist and lithographer during the Second Empire. Although his family wished him to attend a polytechnic school, he instead attended painting workshops held by Nicolas Charlet and Paul Delaroche. When he began working as a cartoonist, he took the pseudonym ‘Cham’. The name was a pun, a combination of the names Charles and Amédée, and the Jewish name for Ham, son of Noah (Noah in French is ‘Noé.’)

In 1839 he published his first book, Monsieur Lajaunisse, which began a career that would span 40,000 drawings. In 1843 he began to be published in newspapers like Le Charivari, whose staff he was on for thirty years. Later works included Proudhon en voyage and L’Histoire comique de l’Assemblée nationale. He also wrote a number of comic plays towards the end of his life.

Photographed by Disdéri of Paris.