Jean Forain Illustrated Program of Musque Theatre Gravure Works


Jean-Louis Forain Program of Musque Theatre Gravure Works, Paris in a closed edition (exact number unknown). Bound program four prints, June 1911 of Printed on lithographer’s wove-smooth paper. Signed in TWO plates only. The sheets measure 12.75 by 10 inches approximate with light crease out outside of the engraved work. The etched work is in good condition.


Jean-Louis Forain (23 October 1852 - 11 July 1931) was a French Impressionist painter, lithographer, watercolorist and etcher.

Forain was born in Reims, Marne but at age eight, his family moved to Paris. He began his career working as a caricaturist for several Paris journals including Le Monde Parisien and Le rire satirique. Wanting to expand his horizons, enrolled at the École des Beaux Arts, studying under Jean-Léon Gérôme as well as another sculptor/painter, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. Forain's quick and often biting wit allowed him to befriend poets Rimbaud and Verlaine as well as many writers, most notably Joris-Karl Huysmans. He was the youngest artist to frequent and participate in the feverish debates led by Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas at the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes.

Alexandre-Pierre Georges (Sacha) Guitry (21 February 1885 – 24 July 1957) was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the Boulevard theatre.

Guitry was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1885, the son of the well-known actor Lucien Guitry. Sacha was first on stage at age five. He developed a charming, witty stage persona, often appearing in period-dress light comedies, for instance his 1925 pastiche Mozart, which contains a story about the fictional adventures of Wolfgang Mozart on a visit to Paris. In his 1937 film Pearls of the Crown he plays four roles, one of them being Napoleon III.