Aux Buttes Chaumont / Jouets | Maitre de L’Affiche: Plate #141

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.
A variation of the “Aux Buttes Chaumont” poster as seen on the popular TV show “Friends” which hung in Monica and Chandler’s apartment.

It is one of approximately 42 advertising posters that Cheret designed for the Paris department store “Aux Buttes Chaumont,” starting around 1878.

“The composition is essentially a grouping of figures loosely connects in order to take advantage of the enormous verticality of the poster. It’s the scale and Cheret’s details that are so winning here: the pointy-chinned dolls (in matching costume), the bucktoothed kinship of the two little girls, their hairdos wild with excitement. Cheret often portrayed children in his posters, largely for such toys and gift sale announcements” (Paris 1900, p.152)
“The joy of the little ones in possession of their playthings is contagious” (Hiatt p.34)
There are three of these wonderful Aux Buttes Chamont store posters advertising toys and gifts included in the Mâitre de l’Affiche series (see PL. 169 & PL.185).