Jules Chéret and Alphonse Mucha

My recent work on Eugène Rimmel for a mini online exhibition on my other blog: The John Johnson Collection: Now and Then led me to explore his little-known collaboration with his countryman Jules Chéret.

It was Chéret who compiled Les Maitres de l'Affiche. Published by Imprimerie Chaix between 1895 and 1900, this monthly publication showcased international lithographic poster art, including works by Toulouse Lautrec, Chéret himself, Steinlen, and Dudley Hardy.


It is now very easy to gain an overview of the works of artists, especially poster artists, through commercial sites, usually showing reproductions which can be ordered as prints, mugs, T shirts, etc. Googling offers quick and easy ways to see the works of Jules Chéret, Toulouse Lautrec, Steinlen, Dudley Hardy and others. The commercial All posters site includes the facility to view international musuem holdings, e.g. from the Musée Toulouse Lautrec in Albi, as well as searching by artist.

The complete works - Jules Chéret is a site which, while it does not include Chéret's work on valentines or almanacs, does present the advertising posters (124 images) for which he is famous, in an attractive manner.   There is also a biography. This too is a commercial site, offering hand-painted reproductions of the works, but there is, nevertheless, some descriptive metadata.

For more academic sites, with metadata, however, Gallica again  reveals what a rich resource it is, with no fewer than 1,165 results for Chéret, Jules, many from the Médiathèque de Chaumont. There are many  hundreds for Mucha, Lautrec etc.

(C) Gallica

 The V&A site also has a weatlth of posters, with a supporting study guide, which includes a superb bibliography.

(C) V&A

(C) Mucha Foundation

My interest in Alphonse Mucha was rekindled by a visit to Prague last summer, where I visited both Mucha museums. The Mucha Foundation has a wonderful website, full of information and with over 300 images of Mucha's key works