Quadrille of the Louis XIII Chair

In 1885, Rudolphe Salis moved the Chat Noir, a cabaret in which Aristide Bruant himself appeared, to the Rue de Laval. Salis, his artists and customers turned the move into a jolly procession with music and costumes and, while Salis believed he had left nothing behind, he nevertheless forgotten a Louis XIII chair. Bruant, the new proprietor of the premises, refused to relinquish the chair. Instead he hung it on the ceiling and made it the butt of one of his famous satirical songs.

Lautrec has captured the movement of the performers, dancing couples and audience in numerous sketches. Lautrec has immortalised himself at the right-hand edge of the picture on the chair.