The French artist Paul Henri Derambure, who often used the pseudonym Polder, produced illustrations for dozens of books in the 1940s and 50s, but it was only in the late 1940s that he strayed briefly into eroticism. It may be entirely coincidental that he met and married Marie Luzier in February 1947; they went on to have four children.

Derambure grew up in the north-eastern village of Wervicq-Sud, near Lille, next to the Belgian border, and like many art students moved to Paris to continue his studies, arriving there in 1918 after two years of military service.

He was fortunate, after nearly thirty years of run-of-the-mill jobbing work, to be approached in 1946 by the Athéna publishing house, which specialised in the production of limited edition luxury books. Based at 78 boulevard Saint-Michel in the prestigious sixth arrondisement adjacent to the Jardin de Luxembourg, it employed many well-known illustrators for its prestigious collections, including Raoul Auger, Edou Martin, André Hofer, Joseph Hémard, André Michel and Jacques Camus. For several years the reliable and competent Paul Derambure was an important Athéna artist.

Alongside his Athéna work, Derambure developed several comic strips under the Polder pseudonym, including La perle de Macassar (The Pearl of Macassar) and Galahad le justicier (Galahad the Vigilante). The last illustrations we know of by him are for several titles for the children’s publisher Éditions MDI in the early 1960s.

We are very grateful to our Russian friend Yuri for suggesting the inclusion of this artist.

Similar artists

Raoul Auger – French illustrator and fellow Athéna luxury-edition artist.
Léon Courbouleix – French postwar erotic-bibliophile illustrator of literary subjects.
Maurice de Becque – French illustrator of interwar fine editions.
Joseph Hémard – French illustrator and fellow Athéna luxury-edition artist.
Sylvain Sauvage – French art-deco illustrator of refined livre d’artiste editions.