Lautrec’s only American commission came from the lithographic ink manufacturers Ault & Wiborg in Cincinnati. The poster is his only work printed on zinc rather than stone, and its medium and small scale were dictated by the necessity of sending the plates across the Atlantic for printing.

This poster is typical of the occasional disparity between Lautrec’s imagery and the product meant to be advertised. Its promotional lure, one used extensively in the nineteenth century, is simply a colorful depiction of a pretty young woman. However, outside the commercial context of its eventual use, the image reveals the subtle psychological tensions which Lautrec found in theatre audiences.

The pair are reminiscent of Jane Avril and the critic Edouard Dujardin in the poster Divan Japonais, and the subjects have sometimes been identified as Dujardin or Dr. Gabriel Tapié de Céleyran with Misia Nathanson. However, it is more likely that Lautrec portrayed the actress Emilienne d’Alençon with her banker Henri Fourcade. The plates are preserved at The Art Institute of Chicago. Nora Desloge Toulouse-Lautrec, The Baldwin M. Baldwin Collection, San Diego Museum of Art, 1989, p. 254.