Galerie Paul Prouté

Born Swiss, naturalized French, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen spent his entire adult and artistic life in Paris, and more specifically in Montmartre, of which he is one of the most important artists of the late 19^th century. Self-taught, Steinlen had the ambition to be recognized as a painter (he also sculpted); however, it is for his talent as a draftsman and engraver that he achieved fame. His drawings (Steinlen worked mainly with charcoal and pastel) number in the thousands and his prints (if his illustrations are included) exceed four thousand three hundred items. Among these, it is less his single-sheet prints (some two hundred and fifty lithographs and one hundred and fifty etchings) that made him known than his productions for books, sheet music, newspapers (Steinlen worked for the mainstream Parisian press as well as for marginal activist journals) and especially for posters (Steinlen is notably the author of the very famous Tournée du chat noir). Executed by an attentive observer of the Parisian street and a fervent champion of the cause of the most destitute, Steinlen’s works, whatever the medium, give a realistic, fraternal, and spirited vision, served by an unparalleled pencil, of the working-class Paris of his time.