A Study of Sacha Zaliouk

Sacha frequently contributed to the magazine Le Sourire, which was founded by Paul Gauguin and later taken over by Maurice Méry. Under Méry, the magazine adapted a more humorist and sexual style through its articles and sketches. Sacha contributed two such sketches including the devil that I could find, one published 26th April 1928 (source) as shown to the right, and a different sketch on 10th May 1928 (source), shown below.

The first shows the devil bowing to the figure of Marguerite. The colours are beautifully contrasted and the devil holds his hands in a pleading/prayer position; ears pointed, horns spiked. The blue shade of Marguerite makes her more an apparition, a dream-like figure. She holds a trident with a heart speared on its centre prong. The objects around them are largely angular, pointed. The devil’s tail coils near his curled shoes. It is a contrast to the tuxedo-wearing devil in Sacha’s second drawing.

Remaining with the devil theme, Sacha dressed as Lucifer for one of La Horde’s charity balls (source) – La Horde du Montparnasse was an artistic group of which Sacha was a member – you can learn more about them in the relevant section of his biography. This article is dated 20th April 1928, and the article on the following day shows a caricature of Sacha as the devil (source).

The ball mentioned in the Paris-Midi article was held in the famous Bal Bullier, like many of their parties. The author describes the crowd at the ball and how the room became crowded, and that the decorations began to fall apart from the cigarette smoke and champagne. At one point of the evening, a ‘massive Mephistopheles’ appears – it is Jean Bourbon, of the Opéra in Paris, who sings the hymn of La Horde. I write a blog dedicated to an artist largely forgotten in academic works, and whose biography is repeated across galleries with few citations, so I was very pleased to come across this blog which offers more information on Jean Bourbon, and encourage you to read it for more on this figure.

For Sacha’s part, the author writes:

Yes, I said Zaliouk. He’s a devil of extreme elegance. He would make a Mephistopheles of the highest order if the Heavenly Father had given him the bass of Chambon.*

I believe Chambon may be this opera singer, similarly described on the blog above.

The devils in Sacha’s sketches are some of my favourite pieces he made – it makes sense that ‘a devil of extreme elegance’ could capture the devil’s likeness so well…