INTRODUCTION:
Over many years we have collected a large amount of memorabilia related to the arts, such as paintings (all media), photographs, posters, pottery (particularly very creative pieces) and music in all it's forms. We even see old technology as an art form, the skill and attention to detail in old electronic equipment is a site to behold!
Way back in time, well before Covid-19 was ravaging our planet, we visited Europe and were lucky enough to obtain some excellent French made litho poster art prints, this is one of them and MORE CAN BE FOUND HERE.
Lithography became very popular in the 19th century and Paris lead the way in this print technique, where the artist worked closely with fine printers. This poster is a lithographic ART PRINT not an original lithograph! (those originals are very rare) and this poster is much smaller than the original.
What is this poster all about?
Divan Japonais refers to a real place, which opened in the 1870's and it operated as a type of cafe with live performances. This was a cafe where you could enjoy something out of the ordinary, such as the very first naked woman (outrageous in those days, she was wearing a see-through top - not at all nude by contemporary standards). The cafe-theatre was frequented by the artist of this poster (Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec) along with many well known people involved in the arts including Pablo Picasso. Henri had a short life but produced a mountain of works, particularly crowd scenes and Parisian nightlife. Divan Japonais was a little like a nightclub for the artists (you could say Bohemians) of the day. Over the years, the cafe's name has changed and the owners have changed but its function remains a small "cafe theatre"
The purpose of the poster was advertising of the cafe/theatre. Three characters are depicted and they are the dancer Jane Avril, the writer/art critic Édouard Dujardin and the top most character which is largely obscured is the cabaret singer, Yvette Guilbert.
The name Ed Fournier appears in the poster, left side lower area and he was the owner of Divan Japonais at the time.
Signed by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in the far right hand side, lower area and a little difficult to see as it is "buried" amongst the artwork with similar colouring (blacks & greys)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - "Divan Japonais"
Art print
UNFRAMED (placed on a stiff cardboard sheet within a sealed cellowrap sleeve)
Artwork dimensions: 223mm wide x 294mm height
White border is NOT the same width on all sides. Top & LH side 10mm but the Bottom is 11mm and RH side is 9mm
Stock used appears to be 250gsm (light card commonly used for art print processes)
Printed along the bottom edge of the poster is:
Limited Edition
Artertre Paris
Made In France
TL 3
ARTWORK DETAILS:
Originally the lithograph was created in 1892–93 using crayon, brush, spatter and transferred screen lithograph being printed in 4 color-layers.
This art print is clean, crisp with vibrant colours. Close examination of the print shows no distinct "machine" pattern in the print, a nice even flow to the ink and good consistent colouring.
This is NOT a digital print!
The art print will be supplied without a frame but it has been placed on a stiff cardboard sheet within sealed cellowrap.
For goodness sake, please, when you do frame this museum size poster do not use one of those horrible "kitset frames" made of metal or even worse, plastic! That type of frame is totally out of character with this poster!
As an idea, here is a frame that is far more suitable (we do not have any frames for sale, just "idea giving")
