Marc Simont, his life, his work and the state of the world
By Brenda Underwood
Marc Simont, political cartoonist, portraitist and writer and illustrator of children’s books loved by
generations of children, was born in Paris in 1915 during the First World War to parents from the
region of Spain known as Catalonia. His father, a distinguished illustrator, had been working in
Paris since the late nineteenth century for L’Illustration, the French equivalent of the Illustrated
London News.
“At that time,” said Marc, “there was plenty of work for illustrators because the artist was the only
person who could reproduce images. Photography, however, although in its infancy, was slowly
becoming the new way to see images.” It was a multi-step process,” Marc explained, “which also
called upon the engraver. Once the artist had finished a picture it was given to the engraver to
prepare for the press. For weeklies, such as L’Illustration, time was of the essence. If a picture was
too big for one engraver to finish in time, it was divided into sections and given to different
engravers to work on. When it was
finished and pieced together, another
engraver would work on it so the seams
wouldn’t show.”
During Marc's infancy in Paris, there
were no air raids but “the Germans had
‘Big Bertha’”. [Big Bertha was, at that
time, the world’s largest and most
powerful howitzer.] “Nobody knew
exactly where it was parked,” said
Marc, “when it lobbed shells into the
city. At night my parents would hear
the explosions and try and guess what
part of Paris was hit. One of my first
expressions as a baby was ‘BOOM!
BOOM! Boche!’”
Marc followed in his father’s footsteps
and became an artist. He studied art at
both the Académie Julian and the
Académie Ranson in Paris. “The
Académie Ranson is a hands-on
school,” Marc explained, “where
students ground their own colors, sculpture students made their own casts, and the class on mural
painting, where I was enrolled, did frescoes on the basement walls.” Marc recalls from his days as
an art student that “the Académie Julian smelled of turpentine and the Académie Ranson smelled of
wet plaster.”
Marc Simont also studied with André Lhote in Paris, a cubist, who, although a wonderful teacher,
had a very emphatic and brutal teaching style. “The whole class moved as a group in front of each
pupil’s easel,” explained Marc, “and he would begin his critique with the words, ‘Give me your
palette!’ He then proceeded to splatter paint all over the pupil’s canvas as he explained what he was
doing. After one such critique the massier (teacher’s assistant) took my canvas to his office. I
couldn’t get it back because it had become more of a Lhote than a Simont. I felt pretty bad, but in
time justice was done when I won one of his pictures in a school raffle.”
In 1939, at the age of 24, Marc came to Cornwall to work for Francis S. Bradford, a mural painter
who had bought a house in Cornwall Bridge. It was his first introduction to Cornwall and when his
job for the mural painter ended, he decided to stay on. Marc had automatically inherited U.S.
citizenship from his father, Joseph Simont, who had come to the U.S. on an exploratory visit.
Deciding it would be good for Marc and his two sisters to grow up with both French and American
influences, he applied for citizenship.
It was not long after deciding to stay in Cornwall that Marc was drafted into the service. He was
sent to the Field Artillery Replacement Training Center at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North
Carolina for basic training. While there, the army decided to open a training aide shop. Being an
artist, Marc's skills were singled out to provide drawings of 155 rifles and other weapons which
were being shipped overseas, to give inductees a preliminary idea of the weapon. Thus, as it turned
out, for the three years he was in uniform he served on home ground.
While in Fayetteville, Marc met Bee, his future wife, who was working for the USO Travelers Aid.
"With all that quiet and a steady job," said Marc, "I decided to get married and settle down." Last
year Marc and Bee celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Marc and Bee have a son, M.D.
(Doc) Simont.
Despite his 90 years, Marc Simont is still vigorous and active in the community. In recent weeks he
has spoken at the opening of the Thurber exhibit at the Cornwall Historical Society, drawn portraits
of children on Memorial Day at the UCC carnival and joined a group of people at Town Hall
speaking about the life of James Thurber. The portraits he does of children on Memorial Day at
Cornwall’s UCC, “have become a tradition.” When he originally started doing them back in the
early 1950s they were silhouettes cut from black paper. The tradition evolved into charcoal
drawings. “Back then,” said Marc, “I did grandchildren who are grandparents now.”
Marc’s love and knowledge of art hovers in the background of our conversation. He is impressed
by the work of certain Japanese illustrators, especially that of Suekichi Akaba, who “has done the
most beautiful illustrations of Japanese fairy tales and legends. He dominates the medium of
watercolor; it is a pleasure to look through his pictures.”
Pointing to a series of Japanese art books, Marc explained that they
were given to him by a Mrs. Reiko Sassa (Librarian at Japan
Society in New York City), the person who told him the story that
eventually became the book The Stray Dog for which he won a
Caldecott Honor. HarperChildrens.com describes the book as “a
heartwarming tale of a stray dog who finds a home… told with
appealing simplicity and grace.” In addition to the Caldecott
Honor, The Stray Dog was listed in the New York Times Best
Illustrated Books of 2001, received the Boston Globe–Horn Book
Award Honor Book and the ALA Notable Children’s Book among other awards.
Our conversation turned to the world of Sotheby’s, the market value of art and the enormous prices
paid for known paintings. “I wouldn’t evaluate art as measured by money,” said Marc, “I don’t
think the market has anything to do with art although there is a market value for something that is
recognizable.” A piece of work becomes a Rothko, for example, by its movement in the market.
“Maybe to some people it is worth zillions like those bottles of wine that sell for hundreds of
thousands of dollars but never get opened. That’s when money has a life of its own. Money should
be something you get for something you do so that with the money you can get things that you
need. It’s as simple as that; but when you have not only millionaires in this world but billionaires—
what does a human being need that will take that amount of money? At the same time there are
millions of people who haven’t enough money to eat or stay healthy. It’s crazy.”
A painter who stands out in Marc’s mind is Picasso, not so much for any one thing that he did but
for his attitude towards painting which was “very healthy, adventurous and open. Money meant
little to him – he had all he needed, all he wanted. He concentrated on doing things one way until
he saw another way of doing it. He could have stopped so many times in his life and turned out
what was successful and saleable.”
Turning to the subject of Cornwall, “It is a good community although to foreign visitors it almost
gives a false idea of what the U.S. is like. When people need assistance here there are people who
care enough to help. Discussing the subject of town politics, “There are some very basic things that
a town needs and whoever gets elected whether a Democrat or a Republican, if he does a good job,
there shouldn’t be any animosity against him by the opposite party.”
Contemplating his age and the state of the world, Marc said, “Well, wonderful things have
happened in my lifetime. But there are so many lessons that have remained unlearned which is sad
to realize at my age. The two world wars were caused by nations who had, or at least they felt they
had, military superiority—Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. When you see the United States
almost falling into the same category, it’s disturbing.”
“Two things make the world different now: One, all the corners of the world have been accounted
for; miseries that happen in Africa affect us. And, two, we have the atomic bomb which can destroy
us.” Marc believes that the United Nations is the right way to solve problems. “If you have a forum
to discuss your differences you are less apt to go to war.”
A man more interested in the state of the world and the lives of the downtrodden and destitute than
any egocentric world view, Marc confided that, “if, by some quirk of nature, someone asked me to
address a Sunday school class, I would give my version of Genesis” Marc’s version would be this:
“When you contemplate that God created the earth, the mountains, the oceans, the stars and the
heavens in the first six days, it is not so strange that He was looking forward to Sunday to rest. This
was a misstep on His part, but nobody is perfect. Why did He wait until the last day to create his
masterpiece—man? He should have done that first. He even forgot about woman. There were
already male and female zebras, male and female mice—you name it—but woman, Oh my god, He
ran out of material and had to get a rib from Adam. It was a disaster, but, if you are sloppy, you pay
for it eventually. The one thing that He created that should have been His masterpiece is the one
thing that threatens to destroy everything!”
Speaking of what he has learned throughout life, “I have learned just enough to be critical, just
enough to pick out the sour notes. I don’t have the answer for moving forward but I can spot some
of the things that are holding us back… that’s what motivates me to do political cartoons.”