Jules ChéretFrench-born, 1836-1932

pastels. In 1912 Cheret was honored by theLouvreMuseumwith retrospective exhibit atPavillionde Marsan. Cheret had often wintered in Nice and toward the end of his life he lived there exclusively until his death in 1932 at the age of 96. A large collection of his works is on display at the Hermitage museum inRussia. Cheret’s charming, frivolous Harlequins, columbines, and Pierrots, his girls and boys in masks and fancy dresses, were a delight to the eye; his brilliant yet delicate colors danced like flickering sunbeams over the gray stonewalls of Paris. The posters turned out while other contemporary designers were by comparison, vastly inferior in composition, crude in color, and slipshod in execution. For more than a decade, until the advent of Lautrec, Cheret had no serious rival; he was the only creative artist who really understood the decorative possibilities of the postepastels. In 1912 Cheret was honored by theLouvreMuseumwith retrospective exhibit atPavillionde Marsan. Cheret had often wintered in Nice and toward the end of his life he lived there exclusively until his death in 1932 at the age of 96. A large collection of his works is on display at the Hermitage