#6C254
Oil Painting by Théophile Alexandre Steinlen
18” H X 26” W
32” H X 40” W with frame
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen was born in Lausanne on November 10, 1859. He went to Paris at the age of nineteen to live and devote himself to drawing professionally. Around 1880, he settled in Montmartre, the center of the art community, and began to frequent the literary cabaret known as Le Chat Noir. It was there Steinlen met and befriended writers such as Paul Verlaine and the well-known artist of the Moulin Rouge, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Like his contemporaries Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha, he was also active as a designer of theatrical and cabaret posters – an important means of disseminating his work and one that greatly added to his popularity. He became one of the regular contributors to the journal Le Chat Noir, and soon began to draw for most of the humorist journals.
While Steinlen illustrated for the journals, he also completed some magnificent posters and other assorted tableaux. He enjoyed the first of many successful exhibitions of paintings and drawings in 1894 and in 1909 gained the distinction of a room devoted solely to his work at the Salon d’Automne. He also held exhibitions of his work at the Salon des Indépendants. These exhibitions featured scenes of the countryside, nudes, portraits, and flowers – a very different and more personal side of the artist who is better known as a political and social satirist and illustrator.
Steinlen depicted all manner of Parisian society in his drawings and illustrations, with a particular emphasis on the life of the working class. He is a well known painter of the street, especially the suburbs and the popular quarters of Montmartre. His drawings are strong and his colors are unique.
Steinlen’s oil painting entitled In the Boudoir depicts a “belle de nuit” in her private quarters enjoying a cup of tea in the company of her little dog – an unusual example of Steinlen’s work, with his signature in the lower right hand corner.
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