Rating and value of works, posters, paintings by Jules Chéret

Pioneer of poster art, painter, lithographer and decorator, Jules Chéret (1836-1932) played a decisive role in the advent of commercial and cultural advertising. Nicknamed "the king of the poster" by his contemporaries, Jules Chéret expressed himself through a popular art form and made the poster a true artistic revelation.

If you own a work by or based on the artist Jules Chéret and would like to know its value, our state-approved experts and auctioneers will guide you.

Our specialists will carry out a free appraisal of your work, and send you a precise estimate of its value on the current market.

Then, if you wish to sell your work, we will direct you to the best possible arrangement to obtain the optimum price.

Our expert, Laurence Dantec, appraises your posters in collaboration with Auctie's and values them when they come up for sale.

Rating and artist's value

Highly prized by collectors worldwide, posters by Jules Chéret are highly prized at auction.

The price at which they sell at auction ranges from €20 to €145,000, a consequent delta but one that speaks volumes about the value that can be attributed to Jules Chéret's works.

A work signed by him, for example, can fetch several hundred thousand euros, as evidenced by his gouache on paper La Danse, which sold for €145,000 at Bailly Pommery-Voutier in 2005. 

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

Style and technique of Jules Chéret

The style and technique of Jules Chéret, often described as the "father of the modern poster", reflect a revolution in the art of visual communication at the end of the 19th century.

How, in a landscape still dominated by engraved and monochrome imagery, did he manage to impose an aesthetic where color and movement merge to captivate the eye?

Chéret, a master of color lithography, exploited the possibilities offered by this process to blend chromatic audacity and fluidity of line.

His compositions, in which the female figure often occupies a central place, are organized around curved, dynamic lines, lending his posters an almost theatrical vitality.

Like the Impressionists, he adopted a vivid palette, playing on contrasts of light to give his works an impression of lightness and effervescence.

However, where the latter sought to capture fleeting variations in light, Chéret focused on the immediate brilliance, the instant charm that draws the eye through crowded streets.

His figures, often dancing or in full action, seem to defy the fixity of the printed page, translating a joyful, festive modernity, proper to the spirit of the Belle Époque.

As a contemporary critic points out, Chéret succeeds in "elevating the poster to the rank of art while retaining its popular essence", a rare synthesis where virtuoso technique fades in favor of visual emotion.

The life of Jules Chéret

The life of Jules Chéret, born in Paris in 1836, is part of a trajectory where art and craft meet to redefine the contours of graphic creation. Coming from a modest background, he discovered the world of lithography at an early age, learning to master a technique still in search of recognition.

In 1859, a stay in London marked a decisive turning point: there he studied English innovations in color printing, absorbing the influence of English chromolithographs that favored vividness and clarity.

"Everything had to be reinvented", he would later say of his return to Paris, where he set about freeing the poster from its purely informative role.

By the 1860s, Chéret had established himself as the pioneer of the modern poster, combining technical virtuosity with visual daring. His compositions are distinguished by a quest for lightness, a vibrant palette and a fluid line that lends his female figures, often called "Chérettes", a jubilant grace.

This marriage of the aesthetic and the functional revolutionized the perception of graphic art, to the point where he is sometimes referred to as the "father of the artistic poster". By the end of the 19th century, his success was such that he became a key figure of the Belle Époque, his influence radiating far beyond the realm of advertising.

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The legacy of Jules Chéret in his century

The legacy of Jules Chéret lies at the heart of the Belle Époque, redefining the status of the poster as a work of art in its own right. By transforming a utilitarian medium into a veritable graphic scene, he paved the way for generations of artists who found in his compositions a model of elegance and innovation.

His style, which blends spontaneity of line and brilliance of color, helped democratize art by making it accessible on city walls.

It was his "Chérettes", embodiments of joie de vivre and triumphant femininity, that made a lasting impression on the collective imagination, turning the poster into a mirror of modern aspirations.

Chéret didn't just inspire; through his prolific output and his role as passeur, he instituted a visual language that would influence currents such as Art Nouveau.

Figures such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Mucha or Bonnard find in his approach a starting point, taking up in their own way this exaltation of movement and light.

By popularizing lithographic art and elevating the poster to the status of an artistic medium, he traces a deep furrow in the history of the decorative arts, bearing witness to a modernity that continues to resonate long after his century.

Focus on Les folies bergères, Jules Chéret

In his poster for the Folies-Bergère, Jules Chéret deploys a visual brilliance that synthesizes the very essence of his art: an effervescent celebration of spectacle and modernity.

Dominated by a radiant female figure - emblematic of his famous "Chérettes" - the poster immediately captures the eye with its spiral composition, guiding the eye into a whirlwind of energy and light.

The woman, dressed in a light, brightly hued dress, seems suspended in a moment of pure exuberance, evoking both freedom and sensuality.

This choice of representation is not insignificant: Chéret here elevates the female figure into an icon of urban joy, a reflection of a rapidly changing society where entertainment is becoming a cornerstone of popular culture.

Technically, Chéret masters the art of polychrome lithography with rare virtuosity. Unlike contemporary posters, which are often limited to a restricted range of colors, he introduces vibrant hues and subtle gradations, giving the work an almost painterly luminosity.

Flats of color mingle with the fluid lines of the drawing, creating a visual texture that evokes both the spontaneity of a sketch and the richness of a finished painting. Here, the light seems to emanate from the composition itself, amplified by the use of a light background that contrasts with the bright hues of the central figure. This technique, revolutionary for its time, gives the poster an immersive quality that goes beyond its primary function of communication.

This visual dynamism finds an echo in the aesthetics of later poster artists, notably Alphonse Mucha and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, but it differs from them in its unabashed celebration of gaiety.

Where Mucha would introduce more stylized, structured motifs, and Lautrec would focus on intimate scenes imbued with a certain melancholy, Chéret favors a universal, direct, almost jubilant language. His art does not seek to analyze or deconstruct, but to amplify life in all its spontaneity. 

The Les folies bergère poster also illustrates Chéret's ability to embody the spirit of the Belle Époque. By magnifying Paris's entertainment venues, he helped anchor the city as a cultural epicenter of its time.

The female figure, omnipresent in his works, is more than mere ornamentation: it becomes the symbol of a modernity imbued with lightness, of a society looking to the future but deeply rooted in the pleasure of the moment.

This central role of women in his iconography could be compared to that they occupy in the works of Auguste Renoir, where they also embody an idealized vision of life.

However, in Chéret's work, this femininity unfolds in a specifically urban and dynamic context, in tune with the electric energy of Parisian life. 

In the end, Les folies bergère goes beyond the advertising poster to establish itself as a celebration of festivity, color and modernity.

By combining technical virtuosity and emotional impact, Jules Chéret here signs a work that remains a major milestone in graphic art, while embodying the insouciance and vitality of an era.

His signature

Not all of Jules Chéret's works are signed.

Although there are variations, here's a first example of his signature:

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