Paul Ordner, master of sporting gesture

Long before the sporting gesture was shot by photographers, it was the illustrators’ mission to translate it into images in the newspapers columns. An undisputed master of this peculiar art, Paul Ordner introduced readers of the french press, specialized or not, to many disciplines before and after World War II. The accuracy of his line was partly due to his study of the movement of the athletes, on the sports fields. Here are some examples of its work, drawn from my archives.

Cycling, hockey, boxing, sketched out by Paul Ordner