It may be that men of rarer, of more fascinating, talent have now and again devoted themselves to the _affiche_; but none of them can compare with Cheret in the magnitude and curiosity of his achievement. Many have produced charming wall pictures: nobody, save Cheret, has made an emphatic mark on the aspect of a metropolis. Paris, without its Cherets, would be Paris without one of its most pronounced characteristics; Paris, moreover, with its gaiety of aspect materially diminished. The great masses of variegated colour formed by Cheret's posters greet one joyously as one passes every hoarding, smile at one from the walls of every cafe, arrest one before the windows of every kiosque. The merits of the Saxoleine lamp, the gaieties of the Moulin Rouge, the charms of Loie Fuller, the value of a particular brand of cough-lozenges, are insisted upon with a good-humoured vehemence of which Jules Cheret alone appears to know the secret. Others, in isolated cases, have possibly achieved more compelling decorations, but none can pretend to a success so uniform and so unequivocal. Few men as richly endowed with the gift of decoration would! have been content to produce work which, were it not for the portfolio of the collector, would be of an entirely ephemeral character. It must be irritating to the artist to watch the gradual destruction of his chefs-d'oeuvre, condemned as they are to be torn by every wind, soaked by every shower, blistered by the sun, blurred by the fog. It is natural that he should turn his eyes longingly to the comparative permanence of canvas, marble, or bronze; and it says much for Cheret's confidence in his artistic mission for his nice realization of his possibilities and limitations that he has remained faithful to the _affiche_ for over twenty years. Now and [Illustration: 0046] [Illustration: 0048]