Sixth Performance: Boubourouche; Valet de Coeur, for Le Théatre Libre
1892–93
Medium
Color lithograph on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 23.5 × 31.3 cm (9 5/16 × 12 3/8 in.); Sheet: 24.2 × 31.8 cm (9 9/16 × 12 9/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
136965
Art Historical Context
Henri-Gabriel Ibels's *Sixth Performance: Boubourouche; Valet de Coeur, for Le Théatre Libre* (1892–93) is a vibrant color lithograph that captures the excitement of avant-garde theater in fin-de-siècle Paris. Created as a promotional poster, it advertises a performance at André Antoine's innovative Théâtre Libre, a hub for naturalist drama that challenged traditional stagecraft with realistic portrayals of everyday life. Ibels, a key figure in the Poster Art movement and associated with the Nabis group, used bold lines and flattened forms inspired by Japanese prints to advertise cultural even...
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...