Charles Gesmar, Original Vintage Theatre Poster, Spinelly, Music Hall, 1922

Charles Gesmar (born Geismar), known as Gesmar, was one of the designers of costumes and posters during the golden age of the Paris music hall during the Jazz Age and was primarily renowned for his work for the Parisian star Mistinguett. Although his tenure was short, his output was prolific, and his creativity and talent unrivaled at the time. Gesmar’s costumes and graphics caused as much excitement at the time, as shown a few years earlier by the elegance of Leon Bakst’s Ballets Russes. The seductive and sophisticated elegance of his art influenced generations of graphic designers, and he was indisputably a bridge linking the works by other two great artists who worked for the Moulin Rouge, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and René Gruau. Gesmar allegedly died of pneumonia in February 1928, before his 28th birthday.