Skip to main content

Jules Chéret More Prints

French, 1836-1932

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.

to
1
1
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
69
659
450
234
164
2
2
2
2
Artist: Jules Chéret
Original Kola Marque, 1895 vintage French liquor poster by Jules Cheret
By Jules Chéret
Located in Spokane, WA
Original stone lithograph KOLA MARQUE, created by the artist Jules Cheret in 1895. Size: 16" x 23.5". Professional acid free archival linen backed and ready to frame. Full boarders. Printer: Chaix. Jules Cheret is known as the father of the poster helping bring color printing to the world. Kola Marque. Tonique et Aperitif. Stimule forces physiques et intellectuelles. It indicates that if you drink this it helps give you physical and intellectual stimulus. In addition, it is served in all the local cafes and restaurants. I haven't found a breakdown of what 'special' ingredients in this liquor would make you feel and think so much better. Condition. This 1895 poster...
Category

1890s Art Nouveau Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Original Antique French Poster, "Eden Theatre", Jules Cheret, Lithograph
By Jules Chéret
Located in Dallas, TX
"Eden Theatre - Spectacle Varie" artist: Jules Cheret . Size: 28 x 23. Year: 1880. Archival linen backed in pretty good condition; ready to frame. Original linen backed stone lithog...
Category

1880s Art Nouveau Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Related Items
Leon Bakst Three Costume designs from Le Dieu Bleu Ballet 1911
By Leon Bakst
Located in Paonia, CO
Three iconic Leon Bakst costume designs for Le Dieu Bleu ( The Blue God ) a ballet choreographed by Michel Fokine and written by Cocteau. The ballet premiered in Paris in 1912. It tells the story of a girl who tries to dissuade her fiancé from becoming a priest and is thereafter tormented by demons; but she is eventually saved by the Blue God, a part performed by Vaslaw Nijinsky, the greatest male dancer of his time. Fokine’s choreography and Bakst’s costumes drew upon Siamese dance and Hindu sculpture. These three prints are vintage reproductions quite unlike the reproductions of today. They each have the look of original watercolors and are backed on heavy grey rag paper with a hand painted gold border. Properly framed they will definitely look like the original drawing. The size of the actual prints varies slightly but the background paper size is consistently 10.5 x 15.5. Born in Russia in 1866, Léon Bakst belonged to a young generation of European artists who rebelled against 19th-century stage realism, sparking a revolution in theatre design. His fame lay in the sets and costumes he designed for Serge Diaghilev’s (1872 – 1929) legendary dance company the Ballets Russes, and his huge pageant spectaculars for the dancer and patron of the performing arts, Ida Rubinstein...
Category

20th Century Art Nouveau Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Color

Zia, State II
By Rudolph Carl Gorman
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Zia" State II, 1979 Is an original colors lithograph on Buff Arches paper by renown Navajo artist Rudolph Carl Gorman, 1932-2005. It is signed, dated and number...
Category

Late 20th Century Realist Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Zia, State II
Zia, State II
$3,400
H 35 in W 42 in D 1.35 in
Performance by members of the Deutsches Theater zu Berlin / - Ornamental Flow -
By Emil Orlik
Located in Berlin, DE
Emil Orlik (1870 Prague - 1932 Berlin), Ensemble guest performance by members of the Deutsches Theater zu Berlin, 1899. Color lithograph on wove paper, 20 cm x 13.3 cm (image), 29.5 ...
Category

1890s Jugendstil Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Paper

Mascara Roja
By Rufino Tamayo
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Mascara Roja" 1969 is an original colors lithograph on B.F.K. Rives paper by renown Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo, 1899-1991. It is hand signed and inscribed H.C. (Hors Commerce) in pencil by the artist. The image size is 21 x 27.25 inches, framed size is 37.25 x 42 inches. Published by Touchtone Publisher, New York, printed by Ateliers Desjobert, Paris. Referenced and pictured in the artist's catalogue raisonne by Pereda, plate #124. Custom framed in a wooden gold leaf frame, with gold and red spacer and fabric matting. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: A native of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico, Rufino Tamayo's father was a shoemaker, and his mother a seamstress. Some accounts state that he was descended from Zapotec Indians, but he was actually 'mestizo' - of mixed indigenous/European ancestry. (Santa Barbara Museum of Art). He began painting at age 11. Orphaned at the age of 12, Tamayo moved to Mexico City, where he was raised by his maternal aunt who owned a wholesale fruit business. In 1917, he entered the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts, but left soon after to pursue independent study. Four years later, Tamayo was appointed the head designer of the department of ethnographic drawings at the National Museum of Archaeology in Mexico City. There he was surrounded by pre-Colombian objects, an aesthetic inspiration that would play a pivotal role in his life. In his own work, Tamayo integrated the forms and tones of pre-Columbian ceramics into his early still lives and portraits of Mexican men and women. In the early 1920s he also taught art classes in Mexico City's public schools. Despite his involvement in Mexican history, he did not subscribe to the idea of art as nationalistic propaganda. Modern Mexican art at that time was dominated by 'The Three Great Ones' : Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueros, but Tamayo began to be noted as someone 'new' and different' for his blending of the aesthetics of post Revolutionary Mexico with the vanguard artists of Europe and the United States. After the Mexican Revolution, he focused on creating his own identity in his work, expressing what he thought was the traditional Mexico, and refusing to follow the political trends of his contemporary artists. This caused some to see him as a 'traitor' to the political cause, and he felt it difficult to freely express himself in his art. As a result, he decided to leave Mexico in 1926 and move to New York, along with his friend, the composer Carlos Chavez. The first exhibition of Tamayo's work in the United States was held at the Weyhe Gallery, New York, in that same year. The show was successful, and Tamayo was praised for his 'authentic' status as a Mexican of 'indigenous heritage', and for his internationally appealing Modernist aesthetic. (Santa Barbara Museum of Art). Throughout the late thirties and early forties New York's Valentine Gallery gave him shows. For nine years, beginning in 1938, he taught at the Dalton School in New York. In 1929, some health problems led him to return to Mexico for treatment. While there he took a series of teaching jobs. During this period he became romantically involved with the artist Maria Izquierdo...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Mascara Roja
Mascara Roja
$5,750
H 37.25 in W 42 in D 2 in
Lichtenstein Exhibition Poster - Leo Castelli Gallery
Located in Roma, IT
Lichtenstein Exhibition Poster is a very colorful poster realized in occasion of the artist's exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery New Yor...
Category

1970s Pop Art Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Offset, Lithograph

Untitled from In the Bottom of My Garden (Plate 9)
By Andy Warhol
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Andy Warhol Title: Untitled (Plate 9) Portfolio: 1956 In the Bottom of My Garden Medium: Offset lithograph and watercolor on paper Date: 1956 Frame Size: 15 3/4" x 18 3/8" Sh...
Category

1950s Pop Art Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Art Nouveau "Glasgow Rose" original lithograph by Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Located in Chicago, IL
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer, and visual artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macdonald, was influential on European design movements such as Art Nouveau and Secessionism and praised by great modernists such as Josef Hoffmann. Mackintosh was born in Glasgow and died in London. He is among the most important figures of Modern Style (British Art Nouveau...
Category

Early 1900s Art Nouveau Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Lucien Henri Weil " WEILUC" Le Frou Frou French Vintage Poster, Wall Art
Located in Plainview, NY
A fine vintage reproduction of Le Frou Frou French poster originally created by WEILUC (Lucien-Henri Weil, 1873-1947). Le "Frou Frou", which in French mea...
Category

1990s Art Nouveau Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Glass, Paper

Untitled from In the Bottom of My Garden (Plate 15)
By Andy Warhol
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Andy Warhol Title: Untitled (Plate 15) Portfolio: 1956 In the Bottom of My Garden Medium: Offset lithograph and watercolor on paper Date: 1956 Frame Size: 15 3/4" x 18 3/8" ...
Category

1950s Pop Art Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled from In the Bottom of My Garden (Plate 5)
By Andy Warhol
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Andy Warhol Title: Untitled (Plate 5) Portfolio: 1956 In the Bottom of My Garden Medium: Offset lithograph and watercolor on paper Date: 1956 Frame Size: 15 3/4" x 18 3/8" Sh...
Category

1950s Pop Art Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Jean Cocteau - Woman Portrait - Original Lithograph
By Jean Cocteau
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Original Lithograph by Jean Cocteau Title: Woman Portrait Signed in the plate Dimensions: 32 x 25.5 cm Edition: 200 1959 Publisher: Bibliophiles Du Palais Unnumbered as issued
Category

1950s Modern Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled from In the Bottom of My Garden (Plate 11)
By Andy Warhol
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Andy Warhol Title: Untitled (Plate 11) Portfolio: 1956 In the Bottom of My Garden Medium: Offset lithograph and watercolor on paper Date: 1956 Frame Size: 15 3/4" x 18 3/8" S...
Category

1950s Pop Art Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Previously Available Items
Folies-Bergère, L'Arc-en-Ciel
By Jules Chéret
Located in Missouri, MO
Jules Cheret Folies-Bergère, L'Arc-en-Ciel Original Color Lithographic Poster Imp. Chaix (Ateliers Chéret), Paris Catalogue raisonne: Cheret 146, Broido 123, Maindron 111 48 3/4 x ...
Category

1890s Art Nouveau Jules Chéret More Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Jules Chéret more prints for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Jules Chéret more prints available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Jules Chéret in lithograph and more. Not every interior allows for large Jules Chéret more prints, so small editions measuring 12 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of and Leonetto Cappiello. Jules Chéret more prints prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $329 and tops out at $3,800, while the average work can sell for $439.
Questions About Jules Chéret More Prints
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Jules Cheret contributed to poster history by changing how the art world viewed posters. In 1884, he showed his works in the first-ever gallery exhibition of posters, helping to elevate the art form. Find a variety of Jules Cheret art on 1stDibs.

Recently Viewed

View All