He is “a lover of life,” “an adorer of truth.” In his youth, even, surrounded by the wild _jeunesse_ of the student quarter, his spirit was calmer, profounder than the others. Montmartre became the magnet drawing to its centre this ardent soul; in Montmartre, then, as to-day, he saw the Giant Need, imperfectly met by the vast charity of the world. It is from this district that his eternal plea resounds for the poor whose necessities are eternal. He finds his quarter tragic in its commonplace moods; to him the passions of the people have spoken. There is vibrant and touching pathos in his rendering of the love-story of the grisettes, the love-story of the workman and workwoman of the people, an infinite tenderness in his pictures of humble family life--the gathering of the sad little bands enveloped by the fervour of maternity, when the frail mother, bending over her children, has more love to give than bread. And if, as we study and consider his work, we are shocked at times, and claim that the truth is unpleasing--is this not because his subjects are sought among those phases of life to which too often we willingly close our eyes? Steinlen is a Swiss Protestant of simple parentage. He was born in Lausanne, and is Parisian by adoption only. His grandfather was a painter of talent. Save for the fact that Steinlen married at twenty and came to Paris to earn his bread with his brush and pencil, his history has no special interest. He had no time or chance to follow the academic course of study in the _ateliers_ of Paris. In order to meet his responsibilities, he had to make money, and at once. He therefore turned his talent to every use. “I made designs for wall-paper,” he says, “for cotton stuffs, even,--to say nothing of illustrations for booksellers and book-writers, and for song-writers.” Some of his most important work has been done through the medium of a newspaper. During the years 1891-92 _Gil Blas_ printed all the drawings Steinlen could finish. He laboured with energy almost ferocious, under the pressing need of means for daily existence. The result was the finest. It is not too much to state [Illustration: MOTHER’S LOVE] that this work of Steinlen’s in _Gil Blas_ helped to revolutionise illustrative art in the periodicals of France. He gave to the accomplishment of his editor’s orders his best effort, and filled during nearly two years the weekly pages, not for the amusement of his public, but for their awakening to the interest in the life of Paris as seen in the Faubourgs. Awaken and instruct he did. He made a call upon sympathy, and stirred and stimulated charity; but also his art was an epoch in illustrative journalism. Public and editors demanded thenceforth more than the inadequate drawings of mediocrity, and solicited sketches from the best pencils. The modern French weeklies exhibit the cleverest possible illustrations, forming in their class the highest grade.