LEOPOLD STEVENS (1866-1935) EUGENIE BUFFET / LA CHANTEUSE POPULAIRE. 1895. 48x29 inches, 123x74 cm. Paul Dupont, Paris. Condition B+ / B: tears, losses and creases in margins and image; some spliting along vertical and horizontal folds. Paper. Leopold Stevens was a painter whose work was regularly exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais, where he was awarded a bronze medal in 1900. Like so many other fine artists during the 1890s, when the fashion for posters was at its peak, Stevens tried his hand at the burgeoning new art form. For a man with no graphic background, the poster he designed for Eugenie Buffet is excellent. Seen from the back she is depicted in her popular role as a street singer, accompanied by a guitarist, trying to sell song sheets, with the public appearing as a gray blur in the background. Although she was one of the stars of the Paris music halls, Eugenie Buffet actually loved to perform in the streets. She would invariably attract huge crowds who had to be held at bay by the police, and the story goes that the police and the public would join in and sing the choruses with her. DFP-II 803, Reims 1037, Maitres 151.
