Le Grand Siècle de l’Affiche · The Masters
Aristide Bruant dans son cabaret (de profil)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec · Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica), 1893
What it is
A colour lithograph poster by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, made in 1893, showing the cabaret singer Aristide Bruant in profile. The Bibliothèque nationale de France credits Lautrec as lithographe and dates the sheet to 1893.
Why it matters
Bruant was a fixture of the Montmartre cabaret scene, and Lautrec built his image the way a brand is built: strip the man down to the black cloak, the scarlet scarf, and the broad hat, then let the shape do the selling. It belongs to Paris of the early 1890s, when the lithographed street poster was becoming the loud, cheap, unignorable medium of the Belle Époque boulevard.
What to notice
Look at how little is drawn — the figure is almost all flat black cloak, with the scarf's single scarlet band doing the work of a whole face, because the shape had to read from across a boulevard.
A man reduced to a silhouette, and stronger for it.
Provenance
- School
- Belle Époque — the Affiche (France)
- Designer
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
- Format
- Advertising poster
- Poster published
- Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica), 1893
- Source
- Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica) · ark:/12148/btv1b90127456
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-18.
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 40x60" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
.jpg)
%2C%201896%2C%20NGA%20166147.jpg)
