Cult of celebrity
The artistes who were best able to entertain or shock the audience became celebrities. The hype surrounding people of relatively humble origins, intellect, or education was a new phenomenon: a cult fed by the emergence of publicity photographs and the illustrated press, but also by the posters, sheet music and autonomous prints created by contemporary printmakers.
Toulouse-Lautrec’s widely displayed posters with caricature portraits of stars like Aristide Bruant and Jane Avril not only added to the fame of these performers, but also that of the artist himself.
Henri Gabriel Ibels, Seizure (Le grappin) and Unconventional (L'affranchie), 1894
Further reading
- Georges d’Esparbes et al., Demi Cabots: Le Café-Concert, Le Cirque, Les Forains, Paris 1896
- Phillip Dennis Cate, The Graphic Arts and French Society, New Brunswick 1988
- Richard Thomson et al., Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre, Washington 2005