ca 1890 vintage French Milk advertisement Postcard

From our posters with the same title. A work dating from 1885-1895 features a little girl drinking a bowl of milk while 3 cats are looking at her hungry (or thursty). Ad by Théophile Steinlen, frequently referred to as just Steinlen (November 10, 1859 – December 13, 1923), who was a Swiss-born French Art Nouveau painter and printmaker. Born in Lausanne, Steinlen studied at the of Lausanne before taking a job as a designer trainee at a textile mill in Mulhouse in eastern France. In his early twenties he was still developing his skills as a painter when he and his new wife were encouraged by the painter François Bocion to move to the artistic community in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris. Once there, Steinlen was befriended by the painter Adolphe Willette who introduced him to the artistic crowd at Le Chat Noir that led to his commissions to do poster art for the cabaret owner/entertainer, Aristide Bruant and other commercial enterprises. Théophile Steinlen died in 1923 in Paris and was buried in the Cimetière Saint-Vincent in Montmartre. Today, his works can be found at many important museums around the world including at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., United States.