Ambassadors. Aristide Bruant in his cabaret

In 1892, Aristide Bruant, at the height of his career, was invited to Les Ambassadeurs, one of the café-concerts on the Champs-Elysées.

Toulouse-Lautrec captured the the singer's massive silhouette, shown in three-quarter viewstanding out against a brightly colored background, wearing his wide-brimmed hat and his emblematic attributes, the red scarf and the stick which serves as his walking stick.

Although Bruant was enthusiastic about his effigies, he had to threaten his manager, in order to get the poster for "Les Ambassadeurs" accepted, that he would not perform unless two posters were affixed on each side of the stage, and unless Paris was covered with them.