Cart 0

PosterCo Ltd

Backstage at the Folies Bergere - Framed picture - 11x14

£25.00

The Folies Bergere is a cabaret music hall in Paris.

Established in 1869, the house was at the height of its fame and popularity from the 1890s' Belle Époque through the 1920s. The institution is still in business, and is still a strong symbol of French and Parisian life.

The Folies Bergere was built as an opera house by the architect Plumeret.

In 1882, Edouard Manet painted his well-known painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergere which depicts a bar-girl, one of the demimondaines, standing before a mirror.

In 1886, Edouard Marchand conceived a new genre of entertainment for the Folies Bergere: the music-hall revue. Women would be the heart of Marchand's concept for the Folies. In the early 1890s, the American dancer Loie Fuller starred at the Folies Bergere.

In 1918, Paul Derval made his mark on the revue. His revues featured extravagant costumes, sets and effects, and "small nude women". Derval's small nude women would become the hallmark of the Folies. He launched the careers of many French stars including Maurice Chevalier, Mistinguett, Josephine Baker, Fernandel and many others.

In 1926, Josephine Baker, an African-American expatriate singer, dancer and entertainer, caused a sensation at the Folies Bergere in a new revue, La Folie du Jour, in which she danced a number Fatou wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas and little else. Her erotic dancing and near-nude performances were renowned. The Folies Bergere catered to popular taste. Shows featured elaborate costumes; the women's were frequently revealing, practically leaving them naked, and shows often contained a good deal of nudity. Shows also played up the "exoticness" of persons and objects from other cultures, obliging the Parisian fascination with the negritude of the 1920s.


Share this Product


More from this collection