Poster for the Théâtre de L’Oeuvre: Raphaël / Salomé by TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, Henri de (1864-1901) - 1896

Lithograph (320 x 490 mm; sheet 225 x 500 mm). Black ink on thin wove paper; signed in monogram in the stone in upper right, with letterpress added in compartments left for the purpose.

Original lithograph by Toulouse-Lautrec for a double-bill at the Théâtre de l'Oeuvre, including Oscar Wilde's Salomé.

A fine monochrome lithograph with portraits of the authors of the plays making upadouble-bill. Romain Coolus, author of the 3-Act play Raphaël, on the left, with a short moustache and pointed beard, carrying a cane under his arm and wearing a top hat and coat with the collar turned up, looks the dappergentleman, but with an impish smile; there is the suggestion of the Arche de Triomphe in the background behind him. Wilde, on the right and looking in the opposite direction, fills the half-page allotted to him, his dress soft and luxurious by contrast, an open velvet-trimmed jacket and bow-tie, head held back with a certain haughtiness, his hair worn fairly long and his lips standing out vividlyas if coloured to accentuate their bee-sting form; behind him is a view of London across the Thames, with Big Ben acting as a landmark on the left.

The text between the two men lists the casts for the performances and notes that it is the fourth performance of the third season, 1895-96. A number of the actors appear in both plays, although the key parts of Salomé, Herodias, Iokanaan and Herod (Lina Munte, Mme Barbieri, Max Barbier and M. Lugné-Poe, respectively) appear only in the Wilde. The set was designed by M.H. Séruzier and the music composed by RenéLardé. The furnishings for the other play, meanwhile, appear to have been lent by an art company: 'misànotre disposition par 'Art Nouveau'.

The other text that appears is an advertisement by the publisher for the weekly Revue Encyclopédique, dedicated to modern art, with a notice about the 'Édition d'Amateur', available by subscription and containing twenty-six hors-texte plates reproducing contemporary works of art, of which twelve are to be signed original prints.

The Théâtre de l'Oeuvre was the brainchild of Aurelien Lugne, who added Poe to his surname in homage to the American poet. He had studied at the Lycee Fontanes with Vuillard, a co-founder of the theatre along with Mauclair, and made his theatrical debut with an artistic and literary group founded by another schoolmate, Les Escholiers. After further study at the Conservatory for music and speech and at the Theatre Libre, he moved to the Theatre d'Art, founded by Paul Fort to counter the dominance of realism in theatre at the time. Having tried his hand as a producer with Peleas et Melisande in 1893, Lugne-Poe decided to create his own company to showcase symbolism. It was an exclusive, closed circle of modernist artists and intellectuals, with no established troop and no fixed abode, instead renting spaces as occasion required, from the Comedie Parisienne or the Bouffes du Nord. From the outset he was in close collaboration with artists including Vuillard, Bonnard and Toulouse-Lautrec, who memorialised the members in portraits, helped create sets and designed the lavish and high quality publication material such as posters and programmes. The collaboration of artists in the enterprise was as innovative as it was effective: the first six seasons generated a wealth of superb material, including brochures and manifestos as well as lithographic portraits and posters by the most significant contemporary artists. The repertoire was pan-European and modern, including a large proportion of Scandinavian drama by Ibsen, Stindberg and Bjornson, new young symbolist writers such as Henri de Regnier and Henri Bataille, and often enjoying greater critical acclaim on foreign tours in London, Brussels. Amsterdam and Copenhagen, than in Paris itself. Being an amorphous enterprise it largely escaped censorship, but incurred suspicion from the Prefecture of Police in that era of feared conspiracy and anarchist bombings. Among other plays staged by the theatre in 1896 was Jarry's sensational Ubu Roi; Lugne-Poe was keen to encourage new talent and cared little for the reproof of conservatives.

Wilde therefore found a fitting refuge here from the difficulties of staging his Salome in Britain. Though preparations had begun in London for a production with Sarah Bernhardt in 1892, the disastrous English translation by Lord Alfred Douglas delayed proceedings while Wilde revised it and tried to make peace with his indignant lover, and all was halted by the censor who declared it unfit for public performance. Wilde's English translation was published in 1893 (dedicated to Bosie) and it finally premiered in the original French version, staged by the Theatre de l'Oeuvre at the Comedie Parisienne with Lugne-Poe appearing as Herod, while Wilde himself was in prison. He explained that he had written in French in order to try his hand with an 'instrument to which I had listened all my life' (French), feeling that the odd phrases which echo awry as from incomplete mastery of the non-native would 'give a certain relief or colour to the play'. He refers to Maeterlinck, whose play 'L'Intruse' had been staged in 1891 by the Theatre d'Art while Lugne-Poe was working with the company, and in the year Wilde wroteSalome: 'agreat deal of the curious effect that Maeterlinck produces comes from the fact that he, a Flamand by grace, writes in an alienlanguage'.

This lithograph immortalises a key cultural event in the history of twentieth-century theatre, a collaboration between titans of the artistic elite of the time - Wilde, Lautrec, Lugne-Poe and his Theatre de l'Oeuvre - while offering an eloquent portrait of Oscar Wilde by a master of expressive and minimalist line.

Wittrock 146; Aitken 80.