Vintage Poster Archives
Jules Chéret Aux Buttes Chaumont 1889 | Advertising Poster
Jules Chéret Aux Buttes Chaumont 1889 | Advertising Poster
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A parade of harlequins and clown figures in red polka-dot costumes leaps across the upper register of this colour lithograph, one spinning a black-and-white fan, another airborne above the arc of bold red title lettering. Below, a fashionably dressed Parisian woman leans toward two young children seated amid torn gift wrapping. The composition is held together by Chéret's characteristic economy: warm cream ground, saturated red against black, and figure groupings that seem to move even as you read the type.
Designed by Jules Chéret (1836–1932) in 1889 for Aux Buttes Chaumont, the Paris grands magasins on the Boulevard de la Villette, this is one of approximately 42 seasonal posters Chéret produced for the store across the 1880s. Chéret, widely credited as the father of the modern poster and recipient of the Légion d'honneur in 1890, brought the full vocabulary of Belle Epoque lithography to toy and gift campaigns: energetic figure groups, legible bold display type, and the festive atmosphere that distinguished his commercial work from anything produced in France before him. The Maîtres de l'Affiche series (1895–1900), which Chéret directed, later issued related variants as plates 169 and 185, placing this family of designs among the most reproduced Belle Epoque commercial lithographs.
Reproduced as a vintage advertising poster archival print on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper, from a digitally restored scan of the 1889 original held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Pigment-based inks ensure long-term colour stability without optical brighteners.
A natural choice for anyone interested in Belle Epoque graphic design, French commercial lithography, or the history of department store advertising in the late nineteenth century.
