The different theatres
Like the productions themselves, programmes at the naturalist Théâtre Libre frequently depicted the harsh reality of life in Paris. Those designed by artists for the Symbolist Théâtre de l’Oeuvre, by contrast, were dreamy and mystical, although the themes visualized in the programmes often departed from the actual play.
The printmaker Ibels once said in this regard:
‘the action is already illustrated by the actors developing it on a set loaded with anecdotal scenery. What more could a secon interpretation offer?’
Henri Gabriel Ibels, Theatre programme for Le grappin by Georges Salandri and L'affranchie by Maurice Biollay (Théâtre Libre, 3 November 1892), 1892
Henri Gabriel Ibels, Theatre programme for Les tisserands by Gerhart Hauptmann (Théâtre Libre, 29 May 1893), 1893
Fighting over programmes
The programmes were so popular that special collectors’ editions were produced without the lettering. André Antoine at the Théâtre Libre predicted that collectors would be fighting over copies of Toulouse-Lautrec’s design for Le Missionnaire. And so it proved: the lithograph was actually more popular than the play itself.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Theatre programme for Le Missionnaire by Marcel Luguet (Théâtre Libre, 25 April 1894), 1894
Further reading
Gabriel P. Weisberg, Illusions of Reality: Naturalist Painting, Photography, Theatre and Cinema, 1875-1918, Amsterdam 2010
Patricia Eckert Boyer, Artists and the Avant-Garde Theater in Paris 1887-1900, Washington 1998
Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho, Prints in Paris 1900: From Elite to the Street, Amsterdam 2017