The awarding of a decorative commission to artist Jules Chéret in the venerable civic site of Paris’s Hôtel de Ville would appear to legitimize an aesthetic—that of the fin-de-siècle commercial poster—anathema to public decoration’s and the Third Republic’s goal of instilling civic values and fostering national unity. An examination of the commission’s reception alongside the discourses of
affichomanie (poster mania) and solidarism reveals, however, an underlying logic. The artist’s synthesis of modern vitality with “decorative” harmony, considered vital to the democratization of beauty and the shared, solidarist feeling it inspired, was worthy of gracing the Hôtel de Ville.
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