Émile Bayard

Émile Bayard (1837-1891) was a prolific French artist who created illustrations for novels, magazines, and newspapers.

He is best known for his depiction of Cosette from Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, which was used in marketing the Broadway musical.

He illustrated Jules Verne's novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Verne was so impressed with Bayard's preliminary sketches for the book that he rewrote certain sections of the story to better match the illustrations. He also illustrated Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon," an early work of science fiction.

Bayard was a tireless researcher, digging through libraries and costume collections to get the right detail. He  once insisted on building a scale model of an ancient city in order to accurately depict it in a book illustration.


Nevertheless he was a fast worker. According to a frequently cited anecdote, he once completed a series of illustrations for a book in just 48 hours, working non-stop without sleeping.