Ambassadeurs: Aristide Bruant

Aristide Bruant (1851-1925) came from Sens to Paris, where he at first worked as an office boy for a lawyer. Then he was an employee of the railway and finally he worked as a conf�rencier in the cabarets. From the opening of his own venue, the Mirliton in 1885, he performed as a singer of realistic chansons, occasionally coloured by anarchism and sometimes punctuated with vulgar jokes.

Bruant also published the magazine Le Mirliton, in which he printed illustrations and paintings by Lautrec. When he starred at the Ambassadeurs in 1892, he compelled the director to cover the whole venue with the poster designed by Lautrec, and to display it all over Paris. By so doing Bruant contributed considerably to Lautrec’s fame, and his own.

The Ambassadeurs was a famous caf� on the Camps-Elys�es next door to the equally famous Hotel Crillon, mostly frequented by diplomats and other important persons.