Irène Henry

Artist Henri-Gabriel Ibels (French, 1867 - 1936)

Date1894

MediumColor lithograph

DimensionsImage: 48 1/2 × 33 1/4 inches (123.19 × 84.46 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Bloch

Object numberF84-4/10

On View

Not on view

Collections

Prints

Terms

Exhibition History

All the World’s a Stage: Images of Theatre and Design, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 16–July 11, 2010; February 7–August 5, 2018, no cat.

Art on the Avenues: Posters from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 16–July 28, 1996; January 16–July 11, 2010, no cat., as Irène Henry.

Gallery Label

Henri-Gabriel Ibels was a prominent figure in avant-garde circles in 1890s Paris and well-known for his inventive poster designs, characterized by areas of flat color and a strong sense of decorative pattern. In this poster, he represents the singer Irène Henry performing outdoors at a café-concert, L'Horloge, on the Champs Élysées in Paris. Café-concerts enjoyed great popularity in late 19th century France and served as a more informal space (allowing consumption of food and drink) than more conventional concert halls. Here, Irène Henry artfully leans forward and is silhouetted against the trees, gas lights and evening sky. The poster announces that she performs "tous les soirs" or "every night."

Provenance

With Bloch Gallery, Kansas City, MO, by April 26, 1981 [1]

Robert L. (b. 1952) and Lisa Ann (née Greenberg, b. 1952) Bloch, Mission, KS, by January 19, 1984;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1984.

NOTES:

[1] See photo of the poster on the walls of the gallery in Georgia Kidd, “Getting Started,” Kansas City Star (April 26, 1981): 231. Bloch Gallery was a print dealership of nineteenth and twentieth-century prints by American and European artists owned by Robert L. Bloch. It opened in February 1981 at 307 East 55th Street, Kansas City, MO, and then moved inside Brookside Antiques at 6219 Oak Street in June 1982. The business closed in February 1984.

Published References

Georgia Kidd, “Getting Started,” Kansas City Star (April 26, 1981): 231, (repro.).

George L. McKenna, Prints, 1460-1995: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 297, as Irène Henry.

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