Background
Chéret was born in Paris, France, on May 31, 1836, to a poor but gifted and creative family of craftsmen.
1895
Jules Cheret, 1895.
Jules Cheret with his works.
Jules Chéret.
1893
Collotype of Jules Chéret (1893).
1895
Jules Cheret, 1895.
Jules Cheret with his works.
Jules Chéret.
Chéret was born in Paris, France, on May 31, 1836, to a poor but gifted and creative family of craftsmen.
Jules Chéret had a very poor education. When he was 13, the artist left school and started a three-year apprenticeship with a lithographer. He became increasingly interested in painting, and went to the École Nationale de Dessin to study art. Like most other artists, he studied the techniques of various painters by visiting Paris museums.
From 1859 till 1866 Chéret moved to London to study lithography. There he was strongly influenced by British Art, especially printing and poster design.
Chéret received his first major poster commission in 1858. He was asked to create a poster for Jacques Offenbach’s operetta Orpheus in the Underworld. The poster was a success but when no commission followed, the artist again returned to London. From 1859 till 1866 he produced posters and book covers. During this period he also designed packages for Eugène Rimmel, a perfume manufacturer. Cheret did floral designs for the Rimmel products and in 1866 Rimmel advanced the funds that enabled Cheret to move back to Paris. When Chéret returned to France, he took up poster printing and made posters for different theaters, including Eldorado, the Moulin Rouge, and the Olympia.
Jules Chéret established his own lithography firm in Paris in 1866. The fact that he had his own firm allowed Jules Chéret to maintain artistic control and to set an innovative design approach. Most lithographers of that time commissioned him to make a poster design, which was then copied onto a stone by a craftsman. In its turn, Chéret worked directly on the stone, using various means to create a dynamic image.
Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, his style developed from one typical of Victorian graphics, dominated by complex decoration, to a simpler, more dynamic approach in which compositions were dominated by large central figures and simplified backgrounds. The demand for Chéret’s work gradually grew, and he started working for different institutions, such as municipal festivals, beverage companies, and even pharmaceutical companies, creating different graphic advertisements.
In the same year 1889 an exhibition of about one hundred of his posters, pastels, lithographs, drawings, and sketches for posters took place at the Theatre d’Application. Examples of Chéret’s paintings include L’Arc en Ciel (1893), Grand Bal Masqué (1896), and Musée Grevin, Théâtre les Fantoches (1900).
In 1895 Jules Chéret created the Maîtres de l’Affiche collection. This was a series of reproductions from 97 Parisian artists. This work inspired an industry that saw the emergence of a new generation of poster designers and painters such as Charles Gesmar and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
He produced over one thousand posters in both color and black and white. However, after 1900 he stopped taking poster commissions on a regular basis in order to devote more time to his paintings and pastels. Jules Chéret had often wintered in Nice and toward the end of his life he lived exclusively there until his death in 1932.
Jules Chéret introduced a new system of printing from three stones in 1869: one black, one red and the third a 'fond gradué'. This process became the basis of his colour lithographic posters throughout the 1870s and early 1880s; he achieved what no other artist had done before. Cheret was considered to be The Master of the Poster.
Cheret won a silver medal at the Universal Exposition of 1879 and a gold medal at the Exposition of 1889. He was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honour by the French Government in 1890 for his outstanding contributions to the graphic arts. Although his paintings earned him a certain respect, actually, it was his advertising posters, which he produced just to pay his bills but eventually his major dedication, for which he is remembered even today.
In the year 1933 he was honoured with a posthumous exhibit of his work at the famous Salon d'Automne in Paris. Over the years, Jules Cheret's posters became much beloved by various collectors from around the world. Today, his works can be found in different institutions around the world, including the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany; etc.
Bagnères de Luchon, Fêtes des Fleurs
Cacao Lhara
Théâtre de l'Opéra, Carnaval 1896, Grand Veglione de Gala
L´Aureole du Midi, Pétrole de sureté
Pan, a Journal of Satire
Humber Cycles
L'Etendard Français (Quai d'Orsay Bicycle Shop)
Yvette Guilbert
Casino d'Enghien
Folies Bergères, Emilienne d'Alençon
Exposition Universelle 1889, Le Pays des Feés
Arlette Dorgère
Folies Bergères, Fleur de Lotus
Saxoléine, Pétrole de sureté
Théâtre de l'Opéra, Carnaval 1894
Le Punch de Grassot
Concert des Ambassadeurs, Champs-Élysées
Aperitif Mugnier, Dijon
Taverne Olympia, Restaurant
Casino de Paris, Camille Stéfani
Hippodrome, Leona Dare
Jardin de Paris, Fête de Nuit Bal
Moulin Rouge, Paris, Cancan
Alcazar d'Éte, Lidia
Recoloration des Cheveux par l'Eau des Sirènes
Hippodrome de la Porte Maillot, Paris Courses
Vin Mariani
Pippermint, Get Frères
Quinquina Dubonnet
Saxoléine, Pétrole de sureté
L'Amant des Danseuses, Roman Moderniste par Félicien Champsaur
