La loge au mascaron dore Theater Programme

1894

9 1/2 x 12 in /
22.9 x 30.5 cm

Printed in five colors
Key stone printed in olive-green, color stones in red, yellow, grey-beige, black on wove paper
Text added center left, image partially printed due to small sheet size
Edition size unknown, unsiged
Printed by Ancourt
Published by Theatre Libre as the program for the play Le Missionaire

For Lautrec the theater was to be found in the boxes as much as on the stage. One of his best-known inventions (The Box with the Gilded Mask) was a program for Marcel Luguet's play Le Missionaire (The Missionary), which had its premiere at the Theatre Libre on 24 April 1894. This was the last program he designed for this theater before its closing in 1896. With its economical use of color, this is one of Lautrec's greatest achievements in the field of small-scale color lithography. This bold composition incorporates the rare treat of lettering by Lautrec himself, contrary to other examples where it is added, not always satisfactorily, by another hand.

Oddly enough, by focusing on the audience in the boxes rather than the subject of the play, Lautrec was showcasing the exact opposite of what the owner of the Theatre Libre, Andre Antoine, wanted. Antoine was the first French director to turn out the house lights and insist that the audience, instead of watching each other, watch the actors on the stage illuminated by electric spotlights. In this humorous nudge toward Antoine, Lautrec displays the profile of the English illustrator Charles Edward Conder (1868-1909), who had met Lautrec at the Moulin Rouge, sitting alongside a red-headed woman who strongly resembles Jane Avril.

References: Wittrock 16, Adriani 69, Frey 368