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Poster

1893 (produced)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Jules Chéret (1836-1932) is known as the Maître de l'Affiche, or the 'Father of the poster'. This is primarily due to his ground breaking developments in the colour lithographic process, but can also be attributed to his prolific output and ostentatious style: Chéret was capable of rendering even the most banal of subjects sensational. His posters were so popular with the Parisian public that it was rumoured devotees would go out in the middle of the night in order to remove his posters from the walls and add them to their collection.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Colour lithograph on paper
Brief description
Colour lithograph for the 'Folies-Bergère, l'Arc en Ciel, Ballet-Pantomime' by Jules Cheret, France 1893.
Physical description
Depicts a harlequin, a clown with an artist's palette, a man in 18th-century French costume and young woman in a yellow hat dancing under a rainbow.
Dimensions
  • Height: 128cm
  • Width: 92cm
Includes backing paper
Marks and inscriptions
  • J. Chéret (Signed centre left)
  • Folies-Bergère L'arc en ciel Ballet-Pantomime en trois tableaux (Main text)
  • Imp. Chaix (ateliers Chéret) 20, Rue Bergère, Paris (side)
  • République Française (Stamp lower left)
Gallery label
FOLIES-BERGÉRE L'ARC EN CIEL E.109-1921 'American and European Art and Design 1800-1900' This poster advertises a performance of the ballet-pantomime L'Arc en Ceil at the Folies-Bergére, Paris, in 1893. Its designer, Jules Chéret was a pioneer in exploring colour lithography as applied to poster design, and thus in popularising the colour pictorial poster, bringing this new form of art to the streets of Paris. He founded his own lithographic printing press in 1866 (having served an apprenticeship to a lithographer), and achieved a prodigious output. His best-known work captures the joie-de-vivre of Parisian cabarets, music-halls, dance-halls, and theatres. Given by Mrs. J. T. Clarke Given by Mrs. J. T. Clarke(1987-2006)
Subjects depicted
Summary
Jules Chéret (1836-1932) is known as the Maître de l'Affiche, or the 'Father of the poster'. This is primarily due to his ground breaking developments in the colour lithographic process, but can also be attributed to his prolific output and ostentatious style: Chéret was capable of rendering even the most banal of subjects sensational. His posters were so popular with the Parisian public that it was rumoured devotees would go out in the middle of the night in order to remove his posters from the walls and add them to their collection.
Collection
Accession number
E.109-1921

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Record createdApril 12, 2000
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