Montmartre singer and songwriter whose streetwise chansons helped define the cabaret's sound.
Poster · Belle Époque Paris
The singer Aristide Bruant looks back over his shoulder in a wide black hat, a dark cape and a red scarf, with a wooden stick in his gloved hand. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec made the poster in 1892 for Bruant's shows at the Ambassadeurs, a café-concert on the Champs-Élysées. The director disliked it, and Bruant refused to go on stage unless it was used. The Art Institute of Chicago's copy is 1948.450.
Sat for a portrait by · 1892
The 1892 Ambassadeurs poster - black hat, black cape, red scarf - and three more Bruant posters after it made the singer's silhouette one of the most recognized images in Paris. Lautrec drank and drew at Bruant's cabaret Le Mirliton.
Performed at
Bruant's songs belonged to the distinctively Parisian chanson culture that developed around Le Chat Noir.
Sat for a portrait by · 1892
The 1892 Ambassadeurs poster - black hat, black cape, red scarf - and three more Bruant posters after it made the singer's silhouette one of the most recognized images in Paris. Lautrec drank and drew at Bruant's cabaret Le Mirliton.
Depicted in · 1892
The poster advertised Aristide Bruant's own shows at the Ambassadeurs café-concert in 1892 and names him in its lettering. The Musée Toulouse-Lautrec describes his wide-brimmed hat, red scarf and the stick he used as a cane.
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