Poster (Divan Japonais) (Primary Title)
Divan Japonais (Former Title)

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French, 1864 - 1901 (Artist)
Edward Ancourt et Cie, French, Paris, active 1872 - 1895 (Printer)

1892–93
French
Prints
Works On Paper
Lithograph
Decorative Arts After 1890
Sheet (secondary support (linen lined paper)): 35 1/4 × 27 11/16 in. (89.54 × 70.33 cm)
Sheet: 31 7/8 × 24 1/4 in. (80.96 × 61.6 cm)
2016.219
Not on view

This iconic Art Nouveau poster by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec advertises Divan Japonais, a small, artistic Parisian café and cabaret in Montmartre. Owner Edouard Fournier commissioned the poster to celebrate the cabaret’s reopening and refurbishment in a Japanese aesthetic. The new interior featured lanterns, mock bamboo, silk wall hangings, and fans, and the waitresses dressed in kimonos. The poster depicts two of Lautrec’s friends and favorite Montmartre entertainers: Yvette Guilbert, a spirited dancer, and redhead Jane Avril, a cancan dancer. Guilbert, who appears onstage in the upper left corner, is recognizable by her trademark long black gloves and thin figure, even though her head is not shown.

Text by the artist: Divan Japonais/75 rue des Martyrs/Ed Fournier/directeur. Inscribed (lower right): artist's monogram.
Marked (lower right) with the address of the printer: IMP. EDW. ANCOURT, PARIS
John and Maria Shugars Fund
Die Kunst unserer Zeit, 1897, Volume 8, p. 8
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC

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