HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (1864-1901)

This colorful poster publicized French author Victor Joze’s controversial novel Reine de joie (Queen of joy), which follows a young courtesan in Paris who convinces the wealthy Jewish banker Baron de Rosenfeld to compensate her with his money in exchange for her company. The fictional Rosenfeld was loosely based on the real Baron de Rothschild, and Joze played up anti-Semitic stereotypes of the 1890s that characterized Jewish bankers as greedy, dishonest, and unrefined. The book and poster inspired protests by Rosenfeld and his friends, who tore the posters off the walls of Paris’s many bookshops. [The Art Institute of Chicago]