Chéret Jules

Biography of Chéret Jules ( 1836-1932 )

Jules Chéret, a French painter and lithographer, was born in Paris on June 1, 1836. Despite his modest background, Chéret grew up in a family with a keen interest in art, particularly his father, who worked as a typographer. In 1849, he was apprenticed for three years to a lithographer, where he began developing his artistic skills. Fascinated by painting, he frequently visited the Louvre, where he admired the works of Rubens and Watteau. Later, he enrolled at Lecoq de Boisbaudran’s National School of Design (École des Arts Décoratifs).

In 1854, he made his first trip to London, where he became familiar with Turner’s works. Upon his return to France, he received his first major commission in 1858 from Offenbach for the poster of Orpheus in the Underworld.
Between 1859 and 1866, Chéret returned to London, where he encountered a family of clowns performing comedies inspired by Italian theater, a motif that would influence much of his later work. During this period, he also met perfumer Eugène Rimmel, for whom he designed product labels. Rimmel introduced Chéret to Italy, where he discovered Tiepolo’s work.

Back in Paris in 1866, Chéret established his first printing house, with financial support from Rimmel. He pioneered the concept of commercial artistic posters and perfected techniques for printing large-format, colorful posters in significant quantities. His first well-known posters, La Biche au Bois and Bal Valentino, marked the start of an intense creative period during which he produced over a thousand posters. His work reflected the influence of British poster printers as well as Rococo artists.

As his reputation grew, Chéret worked with many theaters, such as the Eldorado, the Moulin Rouge, and the Olympia, as well as for municipal festivals, commercial brands, and pharmaceutical companies. His posters were characterized by their lightness, dynamism, and a signature figure: the joyful, elegant, mischievous woman who became known as the "Chérette." These figures were always highlighted by Chéret’s vibrant and luminous color palette.

In 1881, Chéret sold his printing house to the Chaix Company but retained artistic direction. Among his students were notable artists such as Lucien Lefèvre, George Meunier, and René Péan.

He was awarded a gold medal at the 1889 Universal Exhibition and held his first solo exhibition the same year at the Bodinière Theater in Paris.

In 1890, Chéret was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor as a "creator of an art industry since 1866, for applying art to commercial and industrial printing." Around this time, he began focusing more on painting, particularly mural art. He created monumental decorations for numerous buildings, including the theater curtain at the Grévin Museum in 1894. Between 1895 and 1896, Baron Joseph Vitta commissioned him to decorate his villa La Sapinière in Évian. From 1896 to 1903, he worked on the salons of Paris’s City Hall and several private estates, including Maurice Fenaille’s residence in 1901, where he produced his first tapestries at the Gobelins workshop.

In 1925, Chéret ceased his artistic activity due to blindness. In 1928, the Chéret Museum was inaugurated in Nice, where he passed away on September 23, 1932.