Extract from “POULBOT OF MONTMARTRE” 

Chapter 3 FAME COMES TO POULBOT … The lives of these mean streets fascinated Poulbot. He used his sensitive artist’s eye to record them: the drunks, the tramps, the prostitutes. Increasingly, however, he was drawn to the animated scenes provided by the area’s youngsters – the gosses as they were called. He was something of a child himself in the best sense. Like the novelist, Charles Dickens, he had the rare gift of seeing the adult world from their point of view. He had now found the main source of his inspiration and it was to provide material for the rest of his life. His work is full of examples of their good humour, sometimes brazenly impudent, often poignant. Poulbot succeeds in leaving us an accurate and perceptive picture of their deprived lives. Above all, he captures the eternal hope of childhood, that optimism that manages to survive in the most unpromising circumstances.

pp 40 Generously illustrated with historic photographs and reproductions of Poulbot's art
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