LAUTREC'S Salon des Cent poster for an "international exhibition of posters" recalls a steamer trip he took during his holiday of the previous summer, when he fell in love with a young woman known to him only as la passagère du 54 (the passenger from cabin no. 54).

Lautrec kept a photograph of the unknown woman, lost in reverie on deck, in a pose much like this. He was a master at catching the sort of uninvited glimpse into an anonymous and private world depicted here.

The Salon des Cent was an exhibition hall for prints and posters maintained from 1894 to 1900 by the literary journal La Plume. Most of the leading designers of the period produced at least one poster for a Salon des Cent exhibition.

La Passagère du 54 - Promenade en yacht
1896; Desloge 99; W P20; D 366
Lithograph in seven colors. 23 15/16 x 15 3/4 inches.
Third state. Text by the artist.
Gift of the Baldwin M. Baldwin Foundation, 1987:90

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