Masterful Marketing, from Edo to Montmartre

February 12, 2025—Artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec has been called the “master of the publicity poster.” His captivating portrayals of dancers and singers at Paris’s Moulin Rouge resonated with a public fascinated by their favorite performers. These immersive images and the intoxicating mood they conveyed have endured in their appeal and appear in “At the Moulin Rouge,” Mia’s exhibition of Toulouse-Lautrec’s prints and French posters and drawings from the era.

Given the distinctiveness of Toulouse-Lautrec’s work, viewers could be forgiven for assuming he was the originator of this unique style. “In the United States, our focus is very Western-leaning,” shares Galina Olmsted, associate curator of European art at Mia. “We’re obsessed with Europe. Thus, we tend to conceive of this as an artistic innovation rooted in Paris, leading to the belief that the French must have invented it.”

Japanese Roots

In fact, Toulouse-Lautrec was borrowing from the rich visual culture of Edo-period Japan. Woodblock prints of the late 17th and early 18th centuries heavily influenced his work. Known as ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world,” these prints depicted actors and performers from popular Kabuki theatres in Edo (now Tokyo).

The Edo period saw an expanded middle class looking to spend their newly attained wealth on theater, music, and other forms of entertainment. Venues were also seeking ways to connect with these new audiences. This mutual interest led to some of the first print advertisements and product placements. Kabuki theater, known for its glamorous costumes, elaborate makeup, and distinct style, was an ideal medium for promotion. Prints featuring beloved Kabuki actors and calls to action encouraging viewers to purchase specific items illustrate a 400-year-old example of marketing techniques. In addition to printed flyers, actors would mention the names of actual stores and products, a precursor to today’s television product placements.

Japonisme and Western Art

The impact of ukiyo-e prints on Western art was central to the phenomenon known as Japonisme. This term describes the wide-ranging fascination with Japanese art that emerged in the West during the 19th century, following the reopening of Japanese ports to Western trade in 1854 after more than 200 years of isolation. Notably, Toulouse-Lautrec was known to have owned several Hokusai manga (sketchbooks) and collected ukiyo-e prints by Kitagawa Utamaro.

Toulouse-Lautrec wasn’t the only artist of his time to be influenced by Japonisme. In 1897, the French painter Claude Monet made four paintings of the chrysanthemums in his garden in Giverny. He had been an avid collector of Japanese prints since the 1870s, and his unexpected, expressive use of space in this experiment recalls the Large Flowers series of prints made between 1833 and 1834 by Katsushika Hokusai.

Across the Sea in Europe

The rise of a parallel middle class in Europe created similar opportunities for business owners to promote their products. This was especially true of hospitality. Café and bar culture in 1890s Paris was “in,” and proprietors looked to artists like Toulouse-Lautrec to help them engage the public’s attention. Taking advantage of technological advancements in lithography, the artist and his contemporaries began to create print advertisements marketing these venues. Toulouse-Lautrec’s emphasis on performers in these prints aligns strikingly with the Edo-period portrayals of celebrated actors and courtesans.

Notice how Utagawa Kunisada’s Scene from the Kabuki Play “Kyō ningyō” (Fig. 1, above) depicts flat areas of color behind figures in a dynamic pose. It’s a similar arrangement to that of the dancers in Toulouse-Lautrec’s Mademoiselle Eglantine’s Troupe (Fig. 2). These elements, along with the silhouettes, cropped compositions, and oblique angles, drew viewers in and enveloped them in the scene. “Parisians were looking at the Japanese posters and adapting them to attract French audiences,” explains Olmsted.

Additionally, Toulouse-Lautrec drew on the Japanese marketing technique of using distinct visual characteristics to make the people in the works instantly recognizable. For example, performer Aristide Bruant (Fig. 3) became identifiable by his trademark red scarf, while Yvette Guilbert (Fig. 4) was known for her long black gloves.

Actors in Kabuki theater could also be recognized through the hairstyles, makeup, headpieces, facial features, and expressions seen in Kunisada’s Four Portraits of Famous Kabuki Characters of Edo (Fig. 5) and Lovers Hiding in Rain from an Unidentified Kabuki Play (Fig. 6). “If you were a Japanese fan of Kabuki during that time, you’d recognize those specific visual signifiers—and that would draw you in,” says Mai Yamaguchi, assistant curator of Japanese and Korean art at Mia.

Investigation of the Japanese influences on Toulouse-Lautrec’s artistry reveals that the eye-catching nature of his posters is as timeless as the artistic practice of borrowing, emulating, and reinterpreting. It also reflects an appetite for the glittering allure of celebrity, which, it seems, transcends both time and geography.

Now at Mia

“At the Moulin Rouge” is on view at Mia in the Bell Family Decorative Arts Court through March 30, 2025.

See Monet’s Chrysanthemums in conversation with Hokusai’s Large Flowers series in “Hokusai | Monet,” open now through August 10, 2025, in Mia’s Cargill Gallery.