Le Chat Noir (you prob­a­bly don’t need that trans­lat­ing!) was a 19^th cen­tu­ry night­club in the bohemi­an dis­trict of Mont­martre in Paris. It opened in 1881 at 84 Boule­vard de Roche­chouart by the impre­sario Rodolphe Salis, and closed, after a six­teen year glo­ry peri­od, in 1897, not long after Salis’ death. It is thought to be the first mod­ern cabaret: a night­club where the patrons sat at tables and drank alco­holic bev­er­ages whilst being enter­tained by a vari­ety show on stage and a mas­ter of cer­e­monies.

Le Chat Noir soon became pop­u­lar with poets, singers and musi­cians, since it offered an ide­al venue and oppor­tu­ni­ty to prac­tice their acts in front of fel­low per­form­ers and guests. Famous men and women of an artis­tic bent began to patro­n­ise the club, includ­ing poet Paul Ver­laine, can-can dancer Jane Avril, com­posers Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, artists Paul Signac and Hen­ri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and many oth­ers from the move­ments of sym­bol­ism and the avant garde.

The cabaret also pub­lished a week­ly mag­a­zine (also called Le Chat Noir), fea­tur­ing lit­er­ary writ­ings, poet­ry, polit­i­cal satire, and news from the cabaret and the local art scene. The icon­ic poster art, which most peo­ple will recog­nise (and a few may even have it in mag­net form on their fridge) was by Swiss Art Nou­veau artist and print­mak­er, Théophile Steinlen.

Steinlen was in his ear­ly twen­ties and still devel­op­ing his skills as a painter when he was encour­aged by fel­low Swiss artist François Bocion to move to the artis­tic com­mu­ni­ty of Mont­martre. Once there, Steinlen was intro­duced to the crowd at Le Chat Noir, which led to com­mis­sions to do poster art for them and oth­er com­mer­cial enter­pris­es. Here’s a selec­tion of his poster art, start­ing with the famous La Tournée du Chat Noir (pro­duced for when Salis took his cabaret show on tour). All Stein­len’s posters have an endur­ing appeal, and I’d bet that all of them are famil­iar to you.