Dance Hall Days
French Posters from
Cheret to Toulouse-Lautrec
13 May - 23 July
Special Exhibitions Gallery
In the latter half of the nineteenth century a new art form appeared on the streets of Paris - the colour poster. Many of these vivid images advertised and celebrated the popular dance halls and cafes-concerts. Venues such as the Folies-Bergere, Moulin de la Galette, Elysee Montmartre and the seedier Moulin Rouge were frequented by a wide range of patrons, attracting everyone from aristocrats to young working girls. By the 1980s these venues were found through-out the city and its environs, catering to locals and tourists alike.
Once regarded as simply a form of advertising with little artistic merit, posters became more beautiful, more colourful and more daring during the last decade of the nineteenth century. Colour lithography was the ideal printing process for posters, enabling artists to draw directly on the limestone block with tusche, a greasy medium that absorbed ink. The directness of this method and the use of refined inks, giving purer, bolder colours, attracted artists in increasing numbers. Their art was brought to the streets in brightly coloured posters that could be printed in almost unlimited colours. With these refinements and a directness of method, artists such as Jules Cheret, Pierre Bonnard, Alphonse Mucha and Henri de Toulsouse-Lautrec were increasingly drawn to poster-making, bringing fine art practice to the art of the street.
As posters became more popular, entrepreneurs seized upon the opportunities for mass promotion inherent in this medium. At the same time, collectors began to seek out the latest works of up-and-coming artists. Posters were used to decorate the home, and albums and portfolios of miniature versions of popular images such as those in Les maitres de l'affiche (The masters of the poster) catered to this fashion.
Jules Cheret was at the forefront of the revolution; his posters advertising everything from petrol and bookshops to hats and circuses. However, it is in his bright banners for dance halls and cafes-concerts that his style is given its full expression. Described by one contemporary critic as a burst of multi-coloured laughter, his posters are full of the gaiety and vivid colour of the world of Parisian entertainment.
Alphonse Mucha followed in Cheret's footsteps, designing posters to advertise forms of entertainment as well as personal and household products. He bacem known for his sensual, exuberant interpretation of Art Nouveau, using swirling sinuous lines and rounded female forms. This style emerged in Paris in the 1890s, born of a love of decoration and inspired by organic forms.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a superb draughtsman who came to value poster-making and print-making on a par with painting. He revelled in his subjects - the dance halls, bars, theatres, race-tracks, brothels and their habitues - and executed his posters with an acute and pentrating observation that rivalled the painted portraits of the day. Poster art was not simply advertising; it was also art with a message. The artist Theophile Steinlen, for example, was inspired by the social realism of author Emile Zola, and he allied himself and his art with the downtrodden. Steinlen's massive masterpiece of poster-making, La Rue: Afiches Charles Verneau (The street: Charles Verneau Posters) 1896, also addresses the theme of city life, not on the grand boulevards but in a back street on Montmartre. It explores the diversity of the capital's populace, depicting a variety of social types.
This vivid exhibition of original posters advertising the dance hall days of Paris one hundred years ago is part of an extensive program developed by the National Gallery of Australia to ensure that people across the country have access to their National Collection. A program of interpretive activities and events is scheduled to maximise the visitor's understanding and enjoyment of the exhibition.