Absinthe Bourgeois Poster – Absinthe Bourgeois Chat Noir Wall Art Well let’s be honest, the cat in this fabulous Absinthe Bourgeois Poster is going to need every one of his nine lives if it’s going to drink absinthe like this! The poster is affectionately nicknamed the “Chat Noir”. This black cat poster is perhaps not quite as famous as the Chat Noir poster created in 1896 by Theodore Steinlen to promote the Belle Epoque nightclub of that name. However, it must come a pretty close second. It’s a very popular design among poster collectors and aficionados. The vintage absinthe poster was created in 1902 by the Mourgue Freres who are probably better known for their automobile artworks. The vintage alcohol poster portrays a small black kitten sitting on top of its owner’s table. The chat noir is lapping the wormwood potion out of a traditional French absinthe glass, as though it is drinking cream from a saucer. On the table is a half-full decanter of water and an open bottle of Absinthe Bourgeois. The corkscrew and cork have been left in the neck of the green bottle labelled Bourgeois Freres. A folded newspaper also sits on the table to highlight where the absinthe is distilled. Vintage Absinthe Absinthe Bourgeois Poster – a nod to Pernod Fils As absinthe’s popularity grew rapidly in the 19th century, the Pernod Absinthe name quickly became associated with the quality and purity of ingredients. Eager competitors were keen to profit from Pernod Absinthe’s reputation. In an attempt to benefit and take a share of the lucrative market, many companies created similar products. Brand names, bottle labels, adverts and posters were created to present an association with the successful Pernod Fils. This poster is one such example. The image was created by the Mourgue Brothers in 1902. It is very heavily based on a painting by Charles Maine, a local artist of the Pontarlier region. The artist had produced a superb still-life painting that the Pernod company bought the rights to use. Maine’s painting depicts a table covered with a patterned tablecloth. Standing on the cloth is a decanter of water and two absinthe glasses. One empty, the other full of louched absinthe standing behind a folded copy of Pontarlier newspaper. The painting was reproduced in huge quantities and very quickly the prints could be found on the walls of almost every bistro, bar and cafe throughout France. It was a perfect piece of advertising for the company. The image was so popular that the Pernod company continued to use it in their marketing until the 1970s. The Mourgue Brothers’ famous cat painting for the Absinthe Bourgeois advertising poster of 1902 was, at best, an homage to the artist Charles Maine. At worst, it was a cynical attempt to convince consumers that the Bourgeois Frere absinthe was somehow connected to its rival Pernod company. Absinthe Bourgeois Poster Liquore Da Dessert It is widely considered that Absinthe was first created in 1792 by Pierre Ordinaire, a French doctor living in Switzerland. His intention was to deliver the extract of the wormwood plant which had long been known to have powerful healing effects in an easy-to-consume drink. Legend claims that the good doctor would travel around the Val de Travers in Neuchatel selling the emerald green beverage as an all-purpose cure-all. It was rumoured to cure everything from flatulence to anaemia. Dr Ordinaire’s apothecary and medicinal skills created an elixir that may have been designed as a medicinal invention, but over time it became widely accepted as a recreational drink. People loved the taste and the effect. Nobody is quite sure how but upon the doctor’s death, his recipe ended up in the hands of Henri-Louis Pernod, father of the Pernod brand. Five years on Pernod opened his first absinthe distillery in Switzerland. The popularity of the green wormwood potion saw open a larger distillery in Pontarlier, France. Distilled in Pontarlier and sold in Paris the ‘cure-all’ soon gained an international reputation as the drink of choice for artists, writers, and intellectuals. In an article on the Victorian Paris website, the writer Ivy P states ” The consumption of absinthe peaked in the years 1880-1910, when its price fell and it became accessible to all.” Everybody drank it. The rise in popularity of absinthe in the early 1900s was meteoric. Ivy P continues “In 1874, France consumed 700,000 litres of wormwood… by 1910 this figure had reached 36,000,000 litres a year.” Absinthe had become one of France’s most popular drinks. According to the absinthe.se website everybody drank it. High society ladies, gentlemen-about-town, businessmen and politicians, artists, musicians, and ordinary working-men. The Art of Absinthe posters Soon cafés and bars all over Europe would use avertising posters to promote different brands of absinthe. The famous Absinthe Bourgeois Poster with its much-loved absinthe drinking cat has become one of the enduring absinthe images of the Belle Epoque era. You can get our superb quality reproduction print right here. Purrfect!
