Jules Chéret Paintings
Once upon a belle époque, Jules Chéret and his posters were the toast of Paris. It was the Art Nouveau era, a time when works like those created by Chéret were key to the fabric of the cosmopolitan thoroughfare in the French capital. Today, this extraordinary artist and printer is little known.
It was Chéret who transformed the street advert into the most expressive and coveted art form of the late 1800s. Think: a red-headed belle in a flimsy yellow dress, frolicking through a field of blue as she pours a glass of “tonic wine,” with the brand name Vin Mariani wafting about her.
Through his bold advances in chromolithography and the graphic arts, Chéret and the younger talents he inspired — like Pierre Bonnard, Alphonse Mucha and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec — along with other artists, turned the stone-gray streets of Paris into a kaleidoscopic, ever-changing urban spectacle.
Raised in a family of poor Parisian artisans, Jules Chéret was apprenticed to a lithographer at 13. Although he took a class at the École nationale de dessin, as an artist, he was largely self-taught, schooling himself in art history and technique by visiting remarkable works at museums. When his first solo poster designs failed to garner further commissions, Chéret, then 23, relocated to London, where colorful but text-heavy posters enlivened the streets.
The move proved pivotal, as he soon found work with the French expat Eugène Rimmel, a visionary businessman and one of the founders of the beauty and healthcare industries. A brilliant marketer, he regularly produced colorful, elegantly illustrated and culturally sophisticated catalogues to publicize House of Rimmel cosmetics and fragrances. These and other promotional ventures kept Chéret busy, while sharpening his understanding of the commercial potential of print.
So, when he learned of the invention of a press that could print large-scale formats inexpensively, Chéret recognized an opportunity to become his own boss. Now 30 years old, he returned to Paris with the financial support of Rimmel to establish his own print shop specializing in jumbo-size street posters and set about forging a fresh, eye-catching approach to their design.
Chéret accelerated the process of chromolithography by adding a stone with a graduated background that scaled in hue from orange to blue. With this, in addition to red- and black-pigmented stones, he could make vibrant posters more quickly and cheaply. In the late 1870s, his acquisition of steam-powered presses further sped up production and dramatically increased the volume of his output.
But perhaps Chéret’s greatest contribution to our world today was a simple insight into an eternal truth: Sex sells. The best way to market a product is to put a pretty, revealingly dressed young woman in the ad. In the 1890s, Chéret put so many to work in this cause that they came to be known as “Chérettes,” a conflation of chérie (“darling”) and Chéret.
Descended from the enchanting mademoiselles in the bucolic painterly confections of Rococo artists like Antoine Watteau and Jean-Honoré Fragonard, all smiles and femininity, they fused the present with the past, making them potent symbols of a newly affluent and peaceful France.
Find original Jules Chéret posters and prints and other Art Nouveau posters on 1stDibs.
19th Century Jules Chéret Paintings
Canvas, Chalk, Pastel
1910s Art Nouveau Jules Chéret Paintings
Oil, Board
2010s Post-Impressionist Jules Chéret Paintings
Oil, Board
21st Century and Contemporary Jules Chéret Paintings
Oil, Board
1780s Old Masters Jules Chéret Paintings
Canvas, Paper, Pastel
Early 20th Century Art Nouveau Jules Chéret Paintings
Oil
Late 19th Century Impressionist Jules Chéret Paintings
Canvas, Pastel
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Jules Chéret Paintings
Canvas, Charcoal, Acrylic, Pastel
Early 20th Century Art Nouveau Jules Chéret Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Jules Chéret Paintings
Oil, Board
21st Century and Contemporary Art Nouveau Jules Chéret Paintings
Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic
1910s Art Nouveau Jules Chéret Paintings
Oil, Board
Late 19th Century Art Nouveau Jules Chéret Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Early 20th Century Art Nouveau Jules Chéret Paintings
Canvas, Oil
19th Century Impressionist Jules Chéret Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Jules Chéret paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Jules Cheret contributed to poster history by changing how the art world viewed posters. In 1884, he showed his works in the first-ever gallery exhibition of posters, helping to elevate the art form. Find a variety of Jules Cheret art on 1stDibs.