The Bride

Théophile-Alexandre Pierre Steinlen · n.d.

Medium

Drawing with scraping, hand-coloring in watercolor/gouache and black ink with graphite additions on white Gillot paper (papier Gillot: a white coated paper covered with a very fine pattern of black horizontal stripes and ridges used to produce a Gillotage) laid down on ivory board

Original size

Image: 28.2 × 24 cm (11 1/8 × 9 1/2 in.); Sheet: 29.3 × 24.6 cm (11 9/16 × 9 11/16 in.); Board: 29.8 × 24.7 cm (11 3/4 × 9 3/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Realism

"The Bride" presents a tender, intimate moment rendered with the quiet confidence that defined Steinlen at his most personal. Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen is best remembered for his bold poster art and Montmartre street scenes, but works like this reveal a more delicate side of his practice. The piece was made on papier Gillot — a white coated paper printed with fine horizontal ridges designed for the Gillotage reproduction process — which Steinlen used as a drawing surface, working in watercolor, gouache, and black ink with graphite additions. That striped ground creates a subtle tonal texture no smooth paper could replicate, lending the composition a gentle, almost photographic depth. Steinlen arrived in Paris from Lausanne in 1882 and became closely associated with the working-class and bohemian communities of Montmartre — a social sympathy that runs through even his most refined figure studies and distinguishes his human subjects from the more decorative tendencies of his contemporaries. The work is now held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it stands as a quiet counterpoint to Steinlen's more familiar commercial output. The hand-painted oil reproduction translates the warmth and tonal nuance of the original into a medium built to last, preserving the soft interplay of light and figure that makes this piece feel both private and timeless.