This is the most famous of several posters Chéret made for the Musée Grévin, a Parisian museum which offered shows to supplement its permanent exhibits. Promoting an artists’ festival, the poster is alive with a sense of magic and mystery as the curtain rises. Out from a moonlit, mist-filled background pour a mime, a beautiful dancer, a man on a mule, and a host of fascinating characters.
Musée Grévin is one of the most poetic creations of Chéret, the father of the lithographic poster. Its richness of texture and color is a perfect example of the possibilities of the economical four stone technique which he invented, and how Chéret singlehandedly converted the boulevards of Paris to the “art gallery of the street.”