It is estimated that Jane Avril au Divan Japonais can bear fruit among 2,5 and 3,5 million euros. It will be one of the highlights of the autumn art market Christie's. The work belonged to the collections of Georges Viau, S. Sévadjian and the great Norwegian collector J.B. Stang, and its sale constitutes a sensational rediscovery.
This work has not been shown to the public since the artist's 1931 retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and its appearance on the market represents an important rediscovery for the art world. In the 1890s, lithographic posters proliferated thanks to technical advances in color printing and new regulations on their display. The advertising creations by Toulouse-Lautrec they immortalize the vibrant atmosphere of the ballrooms, concert cafés and lively Parisian nightlife. They are the very embodiment of the Belle Époque and the perfect embodiment of the artist's work. This auction offers a rare opportunity to rediscover and acquire an important piece of Paris' cultural history and a work that significantly influenced poster art.
The Parisian café “Le Divan Japonaise”
Furnished in oriental style, Le Divan Japonais is one of the many concert cafés that Toulouse-Lautrec frequented in Paris at the end of the 1861th century. The lithograph that serves as a poster is one of the most famous and best-selling lithographs in the world. Jane Avril au Divan Japonais is the painting on which it is based. This XNUMX work using peinture à l'essence depicts three figures close to the artist and widely known in the Parisian artistic and literary circles of the time. Sitting in the foreground as a spectator is the elegant figure of the famous cancan dancer Jane Avril. To her right is the art critic Édouard Dujardin, and in the background, on stage, the singer Yvette Guilbet. While Toulouse-Lautrec places her face outside the frame, she is easily recognized by her pair of long black gloves – the favorite accessory of this great star of the Belle Époque.
Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre
Despite his poor health and a chaotic lifestyle that led to his premature death at the age of 36, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec has been the leading chronicler of Parisian nightlife for more than a decade. At the time, Montmartre was a popular neighborhood with numerous cabarets, dance halls and theaters where many artists found refuge. Toulouse-Lautrec is one of the key figures of Montmartre. His paintings, drawings, prints and especially his posters capture the local atmosphere and paint a portrait of its inhabitants. Thanks to these works, the artists who animate Montmartre's nightlife become celebrities. Toulouse-Lautrec established himself as the leading poster designer of Paris. When Édouard Fournier reopens his cabaret after the renovation, he asks the painter to promote it. For the Divan Japonais, Toulouse-Lautrec creates a poster that offers an evocative snapshot of the hustle and bustle of cabaret. It soon becomes an emblem of Belle Epoque.
