Jockey-Club Sardines

Although it is a common advertising technique today, the use of celebrities to sell everyday consumer products— such as canned sardines—was a relatively new practice in 1897. Henri Gustave Jossot, a contemporary of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, promoted the Saupiquet Sardines company with this comical scene of five famous Parisians clustered around a table. From left to right, Jossot illustrated French politician Sidi-Ali Bey (known as Philippe Grenier before his conversion to Islam), singer Yvette Guilbert, journalist and politician Henri Rochefort, actress Sarah Bernhardt, and, finally, the Montmartre performer Aristide Bruant.