The Driehaus Museum celebrates the art of the Belle Époque poster with 45 works by five grand masters.

The exhibition features 45 posters dating from 1875 to 1910 created by five grand masters: Jules Chéret, Eugène Grasset, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Henri de ToulouseLautrec, and Alphonse Mucha.

Bright and bold and found everywhere in fin-de-siècle Paris, the poster was a brilliant fusion of art and commerce. “Subject as it was to wind, rain, and being covered up by posters from rival firms, the ephemeral poster nonetheless became the subject of passionate collecting in its own time,” says Jeannine Falino, exhibition curator. The poster craze, known as affichomanie, revolved around the acquisition of these posters, from buying and selling special editions to stealthy removals from walls and kiosks.

All the posters presented in the exhibition are drawn from the Collection of Richard H. Driehaus.