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Same version sold for $10,200 US Poster Auctions Int. N.Y. June 2023 

The historic "Black Cat" cabaret in the heart of Paris's Montemarte, is represented in one of Steinlen's most memorable images. Hardly a stranger to feline images, Steinlen's love of cat's comes through in this striking poster.

The text here promotes the opening tour of the Chat Noir's resident performers, boasting a “highly illustrious troupe” presenting shadow plays, poetry readings, and songs. Incredibly popular when first unveiled to the public, the basic image was worked into a number of different formats and text arrangements. This represents the initial printing of the “Prochainement” poster.

"That darn cat is at it again in the promotional service of the Chat Noir cabaret. The design was no doubt meant as a satirical comment on Mucha's posters, with Steinlen's well-travelled cat's long tail replacing the long tresses in Mucha's images and the halo here having the inscription "Mont-Joye-Montmartre." (Rennert, PAI-XLI 534)

Steinlen sculpting a cat in 1913

"Steinlen and his wife left for Paris in 1881, and he was soon introduced to Rudolphe Salis. Salis was an extravagant Swiss showman, who was to boast that 'God made the world, Napoleon set up the Legion of Honour, and I created the Montmarte.' He was in the process of setting up a new nightclub, the Chat Noir...Salis, always willing to help a fellow Swiss, commissioned him to execute some drawings of cats to scatter through out the Chat Noir. It soon became the regular meeting place of artists, composers and writers... In 1896 he (Steinlen) produced a poster for a provincial tour by Rodolphe Salis' Chat Noir company. This showed a black sinister, hieratic cat on a red slab."(Belle Epoque 53,55)