Les Programmes du Théâtre Libre
c. 1893
Medium
color lithograph on wove paper
Dimensions
sheet: 47.5 x 34.9 cm (18 11/16 x 13 3/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of the Cafritz Foundation in memory of Martin Atlas
Accession Number
1999.46.2
Art Historical Context
Henri-Gabriel Ibels' *Les Programmes du Théâtre Libre (c. 1893) is a vibrant color lithograph that captures the exuberant spirit of fin-de-siècle Paris theater culture. Created as a promotional poster, it advertises the programs of the Théâtre Libre, André Antoine's groundbreaking naturalist theater founded in 1887. Antoine revolutionized French drama by staging realistic, slice-of-life plays that rejected the artificiality of mainstream bourgeois theater, drawing crowds eager for social commentary on everyday struggles. Ibels, a figure in the emerging poster art scene alongside Toulouse-Laut...
About the Artist
Henri-Gabriel Ibels
Henri-Gabriel Ibels (1867–1936) was a French illustrator, printmaker, painter, and author born in Paris to parents of Dutch ancestry. His early life remains sparsely documented, but he trained at the Académie Julian alongside fellow students Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard, where Paul Sérusier mentored him into the nascent Nabis group. In 1889, Ibels became a founding member of Les Nabis along...