JULES CHERET LES COULISSES DE L'OPERA AU MUSEE GREVIN. 1891.

93x34 inches. Chaix, Paris.
Condition B+: restored losses, restoration and repaired tears along vertical and horizontal folds; overpainting and restoration in margins. Two sheets.
Sagot, in his catalogue, wrote that this was "a superb poster that is considered by some amateurs to be the key work of Cheret." Advertising a show called "Backstage at the Opera," Cheret gorgeously evokes a ballet, positioning the two ballerinas in the foreground and the graciously rendered company dancers in the background, in a bath of sensuous colors. Cheret's ability to organize such a complicated scene in a long narrow format is extraordinary. The show itself, at the Musee Grevin, Paris' wax museum, can't possible have been of as high artistic merit as such a poster warranted! Broido 467, Maitres 37, DFP II 210, Reims 315, Wine Spectator 10.