Full size sold for $ 8625 US
Poster Auctions International, N.Y. Nov 2002
One of the most popular of Cheret's in the Maitre series, owing mainly to
the 1896 use of a "telephone" style device.
The theatrophone
was a distant ancestor of the jukebox. An early telephonic device, it was originally
used to "broadcast" music from the Paris Opera. Anyone who inserted a coin could
listen to the music through earphones. Although the beautiful subject is a picture-perfect
Cherette, she is uncharacteristically wearing black gloves, which Cheret probably
provided so that he could more precisely render the use of the actual machine.
The gentleman in the background is suggestively waiting, either for the woman
— or to use the phone! (Swann)
"This
was the earliest example of live transmission for a fee, a subscriber could listen
to an opera or a recital that was being picked up by a telephone hookup. The young
woman doing the listening is one of Cheret's most charming models."(Rennert,
PAI-XXVII, 353) "The achievement of Cheret was to create a world
of explosive happiness, and to paste it on the walls of Paris. As a painter he
will be remembered for what Huysmans calls his 'spirit of nervous gaiety', as
a lithographer for his superb technique, and as a poster artist for being the
ancestor of all modern advertising." (Abdy
p.36) |
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