Jules Chéret (1836-1932) A Couple, 1909, Signed Drawing

Jules Chéret (1836-1932) 
A couple, 1909
signed and dated in the lower right
Charcoal  and heightenings of white chalk
23 x 23 cm
Framed under glass : 33.8 x 33.8 cm

This work is highly representative of Jules Chéret's art, full of delicacy and fantasy.  
We are in the world of Carnival, which was particularly dear to Jules Chéret, with this male figure dressed as Pierrot.
We find the artist's very free and lively touch at the service of the festive, carefree atmosphere that made him one of the most emblematic figures of turn-of-the-century Paris, the "Belle Époque".

Chéret created vivid poster ads for the cabarets, music halls, and theaters such as the Eldorado, the Olympia, the Folies Bergère, Théâtre de l'Opéra, the Alcazar d'Été and the Moulin Rouge. He created posters and illustrations for the satirical weekly Le Courrier français.
His works were influenced by the scenes of frivolity depicted in the works of Rococo artists such as Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Antoine Watteau. So much in demand was he, that he expanded his business to providing advertisements for the plays of touring troupes, municipal festivals, and then for beverages and liquors, perfumes, soaps, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. Eventually he became a major advertising force, adding the railroad companies and a number of manufacturing businesses to his client list.
As his work became more popular and his large posters displaying modestly free-spirited females found a larger audience, pundits began calling him the "father of the women's liberation." Women had previously been depicted in art as prostitutes or puritans. The women of Chéret's posters, joyous, elegant and lively—'Cherettes', as they were popularly called—were neither. It was freeing for the women of Paris, and heralded a noticeably more open atmosphere in Paris where women were able to engage in formerly taboo activities, such as wearing low-cut bodices and smoking in public. These 'Cherettes' were widely seen and recognised, and a writer of the time said "It is difficult to conceive of Paris without its 'Cheréttes' 
In 1895, Chéret created the Maîtres de l'Affiche collection, a significant art publication of smaller sized reproductions featuring the best works of ninety-seven Parisian artists. His success inspired an industry that saw the emergence of a new generation of poster designers and painters such as Charles Gesmar and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. One of his students was Georges de Feure.
In his old age Chéret retired to the pleasant climate of the French Riviera at Nice. He died in 1932 at the age of ninety-six and was buried in the Cimetière Saint-Vincent in the Montmartre quarter of Paris.