Dec 19, 2007 - Sale 2133

Sale 2133 - Lot 22

Price Realized: $ 1,200
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
ALBERT GUILLAUME (1873-1942) AMBIGU-COMIQUE / GIGOLETTE. 1894.
22 x 16 inches. Affiches-Camis, Paris.
Condition B+: wrinkles and creases at edges; pinholes in corners. Matted and framed.
Guillaume was a prolific illustrator and humorist who did work for magazines, books and almanacs. He was also a painter and a poster designer. Working for the big Parisian printer Camis (along with Francisco Tamagno and Georges Meunier) he designed a string of very successful posters for commercial goods. He also did a lot of advertising for music hall stars, and Gigolette is his best image within this field. He depicts a tantalizing blonde sitting on a table, smoking and drinking absinthe. Gigolette, a female version of gigolo, was a café-concert show about a rough and tumble young woman, and she exudes "bad girl" danger, attitude and allure in every respect. Guillaume places her against a dark amorphous background composed of patrons attending this evening of outdoor entertainment in a poor Parisian suburb, in a manner identical to that used by Toulouse-Lautrec three years earlier in his seminal poster Moulin Rouge. DFP II 452, Maitres 30, Maindron 6.