Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen. The centenary exhibition

29/1/24 - Exhibition - Paris, Musée de Montmartre - There’s still time to go and see the exhibition that the Musée de Montmartre is devoting to Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen to mark the centenary of his death. Born in Lausanne in 1859, the painter moved to Paris in 1881 and lived there all his life. His works are held in the museum’s permanent collections, and are supplemented mainly by loans from the Association des amis du petit Palais in Geneva, as well as from a number of public and private collections.

1. Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859-1923)
Horrible End of a Goldfish, 1884
Photogravure, for Le Chat noir, n°121, 3 May 1884
Paris, Musée de Montmartre
Photo: bbsg

See the image in its page

Naturally, the tour opens with the must-see Chat noir, surrounded by the other works the artist designed for Rodolphe Salis’s famous cabaret and for the gazette of the same name (ill. 1), which are what make him famous today (see article). More generally, cats accompanied Steinlen throughout his life, drawn, painted or even sculpted; it has to be said that he lived surrounded by stray cats, so much so that his house in the rue Caulaincourt in Montmartre was nicknamed The Cat’s cottage or The Cat’s villa. He was not a sectarian, however, and also welcomed a few peacocks, monkeys and a crocodile named Gustave.
Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen was best known for his work as an illustrator, although this is the subject of only one section in the exhibition, which is both thematic and chronological. The Freedom of the Press Law of 29 July 1881 encouraged the development of the press, and Steinlen was soon commissioned to produce humorous, satirical or simply illustrative drawings for songs, pamphlets and articles. He worked for Mirliton, the gazette of the cabaret of the same name opened by Aristide Bruant, for the weekly supplement to Gil Blas as well, and also collaborated with Zo d’Axa, a satirical, libertarian, anti-militarist and pamphleteer journalist…