Hardy was an English artist working in oils as well as illustrating for the newspapers and producing posters. This image in matted/framed/glazed, in fine condition with part of the authenticating publisher’s blindstamp visible in lower right corner.
This series allowed the public to collect and exhibit smaller versions of the often very large originals. The smaller format rendered economically feasible the use of much better paper and printing techniques. The brainchild of the artist, printer, and entrepreneur Jules Cheret (1836 – 1932), the series offered collections, through monthly and annual subscriptions, the best of the countless posters that decorated the streets and boulevards of European and American cities. Distributed at the rate of four per month by mail, the posters represented the work of almost 100 artists, foremost among them Cheret himself, who edited the series and contributed 67 of its 256 plates. But to be fair, he was a master of the medium with about 1,000 posters to his credit. More precisely, the series consisted of 240 posters and 16 special, or bonus, plates, which were original works of art and not reproductions of postersOf the four posters mailed out every month, one was always by Cheret. The series ran from December 1895 through November 1900—a total of 60 months. The bonus plates were sent out each December, March June, and December during the final three years of the series. Cheret served as Art Director for the Paris printer/publisher Imprimerie Chaix. Since the images were not all in the same proportions, but the sheets used by the publisher were of uniform size—approximately 11 3/8 x 15 ¾” —all sheets had margins, and these varied in width with the image. The earliest posters to be included in the series originally appeared in or about 1890.
