Cartoonist & Nose

Is caricature cruel? Many a reader of Paris' left-wing daily Combat (circ. 58,000) complains that Staff Cartoonist Jean Pinatel's banana-nosed version of Premier Charles de Gaulle is a clear case of proboscis profaned. Last week Pinatel snapped back at his critics. Beside an amiable, big-nosed De Gaulle, Pinatel drew an evil-eyed, small-nosed De Gaulle, then offered his defense.

The drawings prove, he said that one can make a favorable caricature even with a big nose, and an unfavorable caricature even with a small nose. Moreover, "since the public commonly says that politicians cannot see farther than the end of their noses, my caricatures give De Gaulle the opportunity to be much more farseeing." On top of that, he went on, the general himself likes the drawings. Wrote De Gaulle in a letter to Combat: "The sketches of Pinatel are at once droll and melancholy, like life itself."

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