Jules Cheret
Paris 1836 – 1932 Nice
Young Dancer, “Cherette”
Red chalk on green paper, heightened in white
29,5 x 18,3 cm
Signed middle right: “Cheret”
PROVENANCE:
Private collection, Germany
The painter and lithographer Jules Chéret is widely regarded as the father of the modern poster during the Belle Époque. After training as a lithographer in France and London, he lived to Paris, where he produced vibrant advertising posters for cabarets, theatres, and music halls, including the Moulin Rouge, the Folies Bergère, and the Olympia. He also worked for the satirical weekly newspaper Le Courrier français. Because of his bold depictions of women, some critics even referred to him as the “father of the women’s movement.”
Chéret’s female figures, known as the “Chérettes,” broke with the conventional portrayal of women as either prostitutes or puritans. Cheerful, elegant, and confident, they embodied a new image of femininity. Their popularity reflected and encouraged a more open social climate in Paris, where women increasingly challenged conventions by, for example, smoking in public or wearing low-cut bodices.