Celebrity status at the fin de siècle depended largely on the creation and sustenation of a high profile, easily recogniZable image and the entertainment lithograph offered the most powerful and culturally pervasive means to achieve this. Thanks to the poster collectors of the period, and the acceptance of this ephemeral form into the world of ‘high art’, many examples of advertising imagery exist, offering a visual record of the themes and the performers that dominated the popular stage. This article focuses on poster works created by Jules Chéret (1836–1933) and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's (1864–1901) images of the dancer and actress Jane Avril, to explore whether the entertainment lithograph can be employed to aid an understanding and contextualization of fin-de-siècle popular performance.