Ambassadeurs: Aristide Bruant

1892

Color lithograph on tan wove paper, 147.2 × 99.9 cm. The Art Institute of Chicago

A cabaret singer in a wide black hat and red scarf turns to glare past the viewer. The poster sells a performer's stage persona as much as his show.

The figure is cut down to a few flat shapes: hat, cloak and scarf. Posters like this traded modeled detail for shapes that read at once from across a street.
The singer commissioned it himself to advertise his shows at an upscale club.
Look at the low viewpoint, which makes the figure loom over the passer-by.
The design was printed in five colors, with the scarf one flat red.
It came to the Art Institute in the Mr. and Mrs. Carter H. Harrison Collection.

The singer played a rough outsider who mocked upper-class audiences at his own cabaret, Le Mirliton. The artist reused and adapted this image in later designs.

Image: The Art Institute of Chicago · CC0