FERDINAND BAC (1859-1952) SCALA / YVETTE GUILBERT. 1893. 80x30 inches. Chaix, Paris. Condition B: restoration and restored losses along vertical and horizontal folds; repaired tears in margins. Two sheets. Matted and Framed. Bac was an extremely active illustrator working for magazines, publishing albums and designing books. Like so many other artists of his generation, he also designed posters, in which capacity he is mainly remembered as one of Yvette Guilbert's favorite artists. He designed three posters for the music hall star, promoting her appearances at Horloge (1892), Scala (1893) and Ambassadeurs (1895). Each poster is in an elongated format in which the chanteuse is boldly depicted in profile, wearing a long white dress and her signature black gloves. This is the most interesting of the three posters, in which Guilbert is shown holding the statue of a degenerate aristocrat on a pedestal reading "fin de siecle," with Paris in the background (where Sacre Coeur is still under construction). These images wonderfully sum up her repertoire of sexy, daring songs which evoke the demi-mondaine world. DFP-II 30, Maitres 19, Reims 213.
