Concert des Ambassadeurs | Maitre de L’Affiche: Plate #165

This artwork is from Les Maitres de L’Affiche series; miniature versions of outstanding stone lithograph artworks of the most important advertising posters by the finest artists.

“The Ambassadeurs cafe-concert on the Champs-Elysees was so named for its proximity to the Hôtel de Crillon, which used to house foreign ambassadors. In its belle époque heyday, the cafe presented music hall stars from Yvette Guilbert to Aristide Bruant” (Rennert, PAI-XXXI, 392)
Cheret’s glorious rendering of the joyous activities that one might expect at the Ambassadeurs brings to life brilliantly the desirable adage of “wine, women and song!”
“In the 1880’s poster art was just emerging from the drabness of letterpress announcements showing little but black type. Cheret’s airy images were so startlingly bright and fresh on the walls of Paris that they attracted admirers and his sprightly women the appellation ‘Chérette.’ It is not too far fetched to say that they were instrumental in ushering in the golden age of posters” (Gold p.7)