On your wall
Le Grand Siècle de l’Affiche · Les Maîtres de l’Affiche
Les Maîtres de l'Affiche, Vol. 1, Plate 2 - Toulouse-Lautrec (Divan Japonais)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec · Les Maîtres de l'Affiche, volume 1, 1895
What it is
A color lithograph by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, issued in 1895 as plate 2 of volume 1 of Les Maîtres de l'Affiche. It reproduces his cabaret advertisement Divan Japonais at portfolio size.
Why it matters
Les Maîtres de l'Affiche was a subscription series that pulled the great hoarding posters of the 1890s off the wall and handed them to collectors at reduced scale, proof that people already treated the street poster as art worth keeping. Lautrec's Divan Japonais belongs to Belle Epoque Paris and its cabaret economy: a paid come-on for a Montmartre venue, made by a man who spent his nights inside these rooms. The pick of it for plate 2, so early in the first volume, tells you where his stock stood.
What to notice
Look at how the black-clad figure is silhouetted flat against a compressed, Japanese-inspired space, while the singer on the far stage is cropped off at the neck, so the audience upstages the act.
The advertisement outlived the night it was selling.
Provenance
- School
- Belle Époque — the Affiche (France)
- Designer
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
- Format
- Advertising poster
- Poster published
- Les Maîtres de l'Affiche, volume 1, 1895
- Source
- Gallica / Bibliothèque nationale de France
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 27x41" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
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