Musée Grevin: Théatre les Fantouches
View Similar Items
Jules ChéretMusée Grevin: Théatre les Fantouches1900
1900
About the Item
- Creator:Jules Chéret (1836 - 1932, French)
- Creation Year:1900
- Dimensions:Height: 48 in (121.92 cm)Width: 34.25 in (87 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:San Francisco, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: G 202921stDibs: LU911578673
Jules Chéret
Once upon a belle époque, Jules Chéret and his posters were the toast of Paris. It was the Art Nouveau era, a time when works like those created by Chéret were key to the fabric of the cosmopolitan thoroughfare in the French capital. Today, this extraordinary artist and printer is little known.
It was Chéret who transformed the street advert into the most expressive and coveted art form of the late 1800s. Think: a red-headed belle in a flimsy yellow dress, frolicking through a field of blue as she pours a glass of “tonic wine,” with the brand name Vin Mariani wafting about her.
Through his bold advances in chromolithography and the graphic arts, Chéret and the younger talents he inspired — like Pierre Bonnard, Alphonse Mucha and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec — along with other artists, turned the stone-gray streets of Paris into a kaleidoscopic, ever-changing urban spectacle.
Raised in a family of poor Parisian artisans, Jules Chéret was apprenticed to a lithographer at 13. Although he took a class at the École nationale de dessin, as an artist, he was largely self-taught, schooling himself in art history and technique by visiting remarkable works at museums. When his first solo poster designs failed to garner further commissions, Chéret, then 23, relocated to London, where colorful but text-heavy posters enlivened the streets.
The move proved pivotal, as he soon found work with the French expat Eugène Rimmel, a visionary businessman and one of the founders of the beauty and healthcare industries. A brilliant marketer, he regularly produced colorful, elegantly illustrated and culturally sophisticated catalogues to publicize House of Rimmel cosmetics and fragrances. These and other promotional ventures kept Chéret busy, while sharpening his understanding of the commercial potential of print.
So, when he learned of the invention of a press that could print large-scale formats inexpensively, Chéret recognized an opportunity to become his own boss. Now 30 years old, he returned to Paris with the financial support of Rimmel to establish his own print shop specializing in jumbo-size street posters and set about forging a fresh, eye-catching approach to their design.
Chéret accelerated the process of chromolithography by adding a stone with a graduated background that scaled in hue from orange to blue. With this, in addition to red- and black-pigmented stones, he could make vibrant posters more quickly and cheaply. In the late 1870s, his acquisition of steam-powered presses further sped up production and dramatically increased the volume of his output.
But perhaps Chéret’s greatest contribution to our world today was a simple insight into an eternal truth: Sex sells. The best way to market a product is to put a pretty, revealingly dressed young woman in the ad. In the 1890s, Chéret put so many to work in this cause that they came to be known as “Chérettes,” a conflation of chérie (“darling”) and Chéret.
Descended from the enchanting mademoiselles in the bucolic painterly confections of Rococo artists like Antoine Watteau and Jean-Honoré Fragonard, all smiles and femininity, they fused the present with the past, making them potent symbols of a newly affluent and peaceful France.
Find original Jules Chéret posters and prints and other Art Nouveau posters on 1stDibs.
- Compagnie Francaise des Chololats et des ThesBy Théophile Alexandre SteinlenLocated in San Francisco, CAOriginal lithograph printed in four colors (yellow, red, olive green, black) on wove poster paper Signed on the stone lower right Steinlen, also bearing the artist’s printed monogra...Category
1890s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Byzantine Head - BrunetteBy Alphonse MuchaLocated in San Francisco, CAOriginal lithograph printed in colors on wove paper Signed on the stone lower left Mucha. A superb impression of the first of five variants of the original version of this lithogra...Category
1890s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
Price Upon Request - UNTITLED from Documents DécoratifsBy Alphonse MuchaLocated in San Francisco, CAOriginal lithograph printed in dark green ink on wove paper, with hand-coloring added A superb impression of the definitive state, from the edition issued in the book Documents Décoratifs...Category
Early 1900s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Nude Model, RecliningBy James Abbott McNeill WhistlerLocated in San Francisco, CAOriginal lithograph printed in black ink on antique laid paper. Signed on the stone with the artist’s butterfly monogram center left. A superb impression of Spink’s third and f...Category
19th Century Aesthetic Movement Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
Price Upon Request - The ShoemakerBy James Abbott McNeill WhistlerLocated in San Francisco, CAOriginal lithograph printed in black ink on China paper. Signed on the stone with the artist’s butterfly monogram upper center. A superb, richly printed impression of Spink’s only state From the edition of unknown size printed by Lemercier, Paris (apart from the posthumous edition of 58 printed by Goulding in 1904). Catalog: Spink 169; Levy 129; Way 151 Collections in which impressions from this edition can be found: Art Institute of Chicago (4 impressions); Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow (1 impression); British Museum, London (1 impression); Freer Art Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (1 impression); National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1 impression); University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor (1 impression); Boston Public Library (1 impression); Museum of Fine Art, Boston (1 impression); Cleveland Museum of Art (1 impression); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2 impressions); Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, San Francisco (1 impression) . “The Shoemaker” was one of the first lithographs that Whistler made after his acrimonious break with his London printers, the Ways. It was entitled “The Shoemaker, Dieppe” by Rosalind Birnie Philip in her 1903 inventory of the artist’s estate, and indeed it does seem to have been drawn during a period when Whistler was making frequent Channel crossings...Category
19th Century American Impressionist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- LE JOURNAL DES VENTSBy Georges De FeureLocated in San Francisco, CADecember 1898 Original lithograph printed in colors on wove paper. Signed and dated on the stone lower right de Feure. A fine impression of the definitive state, from the e...Category
19th Century Other Art Style Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- "Lorenzaccio" by Alphonse Mucha from Les Maitres de l'AfficheBy Alphonse MuchaLocated in Hinsdale, ILAlphonse Mucha "Lorenzaccio, a play in five acts and an epilogue by Alfred de Museet" Plate #114 Image Size: 15" x 11" 1896 Alphonse Mucha was born in Southern Moravia on July 24, 1860. At the age of seventeen the artist left his home, to work as a painter of stage decorations...Category
1890s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- The JockeyBy Henri de Toulouse-LautrecLocated in Chicago, ILColor lithograph on Chine volant, 1899. Edition of aproximately 112. Printed by H. Stern, Paris. Published by Pierrefort, Paris. Reference: Wittrock; 308-2nd edition, vol. 2, pg. 6...Category
1890s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Adolphe Willette Lithograph Original Hand Signed Seven Deadly Sins Erotic NudeBy Adolphe WilletteLocated in FRAdolphe Willette Lithograph Original Hand Signed 'Le Banquet' erotic No 95 Well known for his version of The Seven Deadly Sins Adolphe Léon Willette ...Category
1910s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Adolphe Willette Lithograph Original Hand Signed Seven Deadly Sins Erotic NudeBy Adolphe WilletteLocated in FRAdolphe Willette Lithograph Original Hand Signed erotic nude No 189 Well known for his version of The Seven Deadly Sins Adolphe Léon Willette (30 Jul...Category
1910s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Mele - Original Advertising Lithograph by Marcello Dudovich - 1910sBy Marcello DudovichLocated in Roma, ITImage dimensions. 26x18.2 cm. Mele is a precious color lithograph printed by G. Ricordi and C. Milano, Milan, between 1895 and 1914. An advertising poster of the famous Italian tai...Category
1910s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Mele - Original Advertising Lithograph by Marcello Dudovich - 1910sBy Marcello DudovichLocated in Roma, ITMele is a rare colored lithograph, printed by G. Ricordi and C. Milano, Milan, between 1895 and 1914. An advertising poster of the famous Napolitan tailoring society "Mele", in very...Category
1910s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph