SEM Biography

SEM. [Georges Goursat) (1863-1934)     Sem was the pen-name of Georges Goursat (1863–1934), who had been a well-known society caricaturist.

The career of caricaturist SEM started modestly enough in his home town of Perigueux where he published his first collection of local celebrities' portraits in 1895. Only after doing the same for Bordeaux in 1897 and Marseilles in 1898 did he venture to Paris where he charmed the city folk with his talent.

SEM designed an important series of war-time caricatures and three good posters. He was a member of the committee of the Salon of the Humorists and later became an officer in the Legion of Honor. His best posters were done for the Third National Loan Campaign in 1917.