?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
THÉOPHILE-ALEXANDRE STEINLEN (1859-1923) AMBASSADEURS / YVETTE GUILBERT. 1894. 71 3/4x31 1/8 inches, 182 1/4x79 1/8 cm. Charles Verneau, Paris. Condition B+: repaired tears and replaced losses in margins; repaired tears and creases along horizontal folds; staining in bottom margin; minor restoration in image. Two-sheets. Framed. Unexamined out of frame. Yvette Guilbert was one of the stars of the Parisian café-concert scene. She first performed at the Moulin Rouge, became famous when she performed at the Divan Japonais and in 1894, went on to perform at the Ambassadeurs. She had a long and tumultuous friendship with Toulouse-Lautrec, who loved portraying her, and seldom did so without caricaturing her large nose. For her debut at the Ambassadeurs, Guilbert decided to take a graphically safer route and asked Steinlen to design her poster. His image cleverly employs the elongated poster format, which he has divided in half. On the left he presents Guilbert in the lights of the stage, and on the right he depicts the orchestra, the public and the lighting in the garden. It is a tender portrait that gracefully conveys the performer's features and captures her personality, from her trademark long black gloves to her poise. Wember 733, Bargiel & Zagrodzki 15, DFP-II 781 (var), Cate & Gill pl. 19, Weill 12, Folies Bergere 26, Word & image p. 31, Lautrec / Montmartre p. 170, Art Nouveau p. 131, Abdy p. 102.
