BACCHANAL

Belle Époque café-concert posters · public domain

The Affiche

The lithograph and the late night — the poster art of the drinking age.

Before wine had photographs it had the affiche — the stone-litho posters that hung the cafés-concerts and cabarets of Belle Époque Paris, where the wine and the absinthe went round until dawn. These are faithful reproductions of public-domain lithographs held open-access by The Art Institute of Chicago — the milieu, not the bottle. Each names its museum, its accession, and its year; a reproduction publishes only once that source record is direct-fetch confirmed. (The famous wine-brand posters we leave alone: their houses are gone but the trademarks are not.)

Divan Japonais — The café-concert in black and gold — the whole late night in one silhouette.Reproduction

Divan Japonais

Paris, 1893

Ambassadeurs: Aristide Bruant — Black hat, red scarf, and a stare — the most famous poster of the cabaret age.Reproduction

Ambassadeurs: Aristide Bruant

Paris, 1892

Reine de Joie — The supper scene, wine on the table — scandal sold as a book, painted as a poster.Reproduction

Reine de Joie

Paris, 1892