Théâtrophone
1890 · Colour lithograph (poster) · Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
📦 Free shipping on every order, arriving in 4–9 business days with production included. Express ($14.90) at checkout arrives in 4–6 business days.
About this work
- Artist
- Jules Chéret (1836–1932)
- Year
- 1890
- Medium
- Colour lithograph (poster)
- Original size
- 124 × 88 cm
- Collection
- Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (department of Prints and Photography)
- Movement
- Belle Époque
A woman in a yellow dress and a plumed hat listens through a pair of earpieces, a top-hatted man beside her, to the Théâtrophone, the service that relayed live opera and theatre over telephone lines to subscribers and to coin-operated stations in hotels and cafés. Jules Chéret designed the poster in 1890, the year the Compagnie du Théâtrophone opened in Paris; Proust was later a subscriber. The red lettering, the yellow dress and the blue night behind them are printed in Chéret's soft spatter by Chaix, Paris. The impression reproduced is in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
Yellow, red and blue around a listening figure, for a music room, study or hallway at 16×24 or 24×36 in thin black, no mat. It suits a white or navy wall and pairs with Yvette Guilbert au Concert Parisien.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Belle Époque painting
- Era
- 19th century (1890)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- decorative, sophisticated
- Rooms
- hallway or entryway, study or library, living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — dark wood flatters the lighter palette; black sharpens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Théâtrophone in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Théâtrophone painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
