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René Gruau One stroke · original posters for couture, cabaret and the Adriatic

A black line, one flat colour and white paper left empty. Gruau drew for Dior from 1947, and for the Lido and the Moulin Rouge for decades after. Every one of our 18 posters carries his printed star and G.

Choose a house 17 available now

R.S.V.P. · Rimini · Paris · 1909–2004

Le Rouge Baiser, original poster: 1949
Le Rouge Baiser A black outline, a red mouth, a bandeau, and nothing else. The design dates from 1949. Our copy has no printer line, so its printing date is still to confirm. Available · from £340.00 · View this poster →

Carton 2 · Un trait

Say it in one line.

Gruau met Christian Dior on the fashion desk of Le Figaro in 1936, and in 1947 Dior asked him to draw the New Look, then Miss Dior. He kept drawing for Dior perfumes until 1984.

His method fits on a calling card. A black outline, laid with a loaded brush. One flat colour, often red. The rest left as paper. Scroll, and a plain line of our own crosses the card: one movement, one red full stop.

  • BlackOne sweep of the brush becomes a whole head of hair. Maserati, Donna II.

  • RedA single red mouth carries the colour of the whole poster. Rouge Baiser.

  • Flat colourYellow hat, red wrap, blue sky: each a flat field inside a black line. Relax, 1961.

  • WhiteThe red skirt sweeps, and the paper around it stays empty. Formidable.

Carton 3 · Les maisons

One hand, many houses.

Choose a house to bring to the front

Gruau worked for couture, cosmetics, cabaret, cars and travel, and the hand never changes. Choose a house and its posters step forward.

Dior gave Gruau a free hand from 1947. Our Dior poster is the 1987 Hommage à Christian Dior, for the exhibition of his ten years as a couturier, 1947 to 1957, at the Musée des Arts de la Mode. With it: the spring collections in Paris, and Rouge Baiser.

The cabarets came back to him for decades. Six posters, from Fascination at the Moulin Rouge to Formidable. Carton 4 dates each one by its revue.

A Maserati, a LU biscuit, a Chargeurs Réunis liner, Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, and two posters for Rimini, the town where he was born.

Carton 4 · La nuit

Date it by the revue.

A cabaret poster names the show that is running. Every Moulin Rouge revue since Frou-Frou has a title beginning with F, and the Lido changed its revue every few years. So the title on the poster dates the printing.

  1. 1967–70FascinationMoulin Rouge
  2. 1971Bonjour la NuitLido
  3. 1972Grand JeuLido
  4. 1979–83FrénésieMoulin Rouge
  5. 1990BravissimoLido
  6. 1996–99FormidableMoulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge, original poster: 1970
1967–70 Fascination The Fascination revue opened at the Moulin Rouge on 15 April 1967; Fantastic replaced it in March 1970. A red leg and a black title on white, the Doriss Girls listed at the foot.Available · from £380.00 · View this poster →
Lido Bonjour La Nuit, original poster: 1973
1971 Bonjour la Nuit The Lido’s revue of 1971. Showgirls in feathers over a black crowd of top hats. Our listing said 1973; the revue says 1971.Available · from £520.00 · View this poster →
Lido Grand Jeu, original poster: 1970
1972 Grand Jeu The 1972 revue, with the Bluebell Girls in orange plumes. The printer line reads “Pub G Cravenne”. Listed as 1970; the revue says 1972.Available · from £390.00 · View this poster →
Moulin Rouge, original poster: 1970
1979–83 Frénésie Frénésie opened on 22 December 1979 and ran until February 1983. A white dancer cut out of black, red title in script. Listed as 1970.Available · from £360.00 · View this poster →
Lido Bravissimo, original poster: 1980
1990 Bravissimo A Lido dancer in top hat and tails, the troupe in flames behind. The Bravissimo revue opened in 1990. Listed as 1980.Available · from £360.00 · View this poster →
Moulin Rouge - Formidable!, original poster: 1996
1996–99 Formidable Black hair, red skirt, white paper. The phone number at the foot dates it to 1996 or later: see Carton 5.Available · from £360.00 · View this poster →

Carton 5 · Close reading · Moulin Rouge, Formidable

Five details. One phone number.

Moulin Rouge - Formidable!, original poster: 1996
12345
Moulin Rouge · Formidable · printed 1996–99 · plate-signed. Available · from £360.00 · View this poster →
1 · The title“FORMIDABLE !” in thin capitals across the top. Formidable was the Moulin Rouge revue from 1989 to November 1999.
2 · The hairOne black shape, wider than the dancer, laid with a loaded brush. The whole figure hangs from it.
3 · The skirtA red skirt in a few sweeps, white paper left between them. Red, black and white: the three colours Gruau returns to.
4 · The star and GHis mark: a star above a G, printed in the same ink as the image. Every copy carries it.
5 · The phone number“TÉL. : 01 53 09 82 82”. Paris numbers began with 01 only from 18 October 1996. So this copy was printed from late 1996 to 1999, not in 1970 as our listing said.

Carton 6 · La signature

A star above a G.

Gruau signed his artwork with a star above a G, sometimes the whole name in script. It is printed into the design, so every copy carries it. 15 of our 18 posters show it. We checked every margin for pen or pencil and found none: no hand-signed Gruau in our archive.

Bagni di Rimini, original poster: 1993
Where to look

Plate-signed

His signature is part of the printed image, so every copy of that printing carries it. This is normal for Gruau posters. It does not mean hand-signed.

On this poster: a star above “Gruau” in black script, lower right of Bagni di Rimini. Available · from £745.00 · View this poster →

Show all 15 in the archive ↓

Hand-signed

Signed by Gruau in pen or pencil on that copy, on top of the print. We have not found one: every mark on our posters is printed.

After Gruau

Printed after Gruau’s lifetime, or a later reproduction made without him. None in our archive: every poster we can date was printed in his lifetime. Rouge Baiser is the one whose printing date we are still confirming.

Carton 7 · The Printed Originals Gruau archive

Every Gruau poster we have held.

17 available now · 1 sold. Dates come from the poster itself: the revue, the car, the phone line, the exhibition. Sold posters show no price.

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Signature
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Printed in his lifetime

Couture, cabaret, cars and the Adriatic, from Relax in 1961 to Rimini around 2000

Design 1949, printing to confirm

Rouge Baiser: the 1949 design, in a copy we are still dating

Carton 8 · Collecting

Read the card before you dance.

  • The show a revue name dates a cabaret poster
  • The foot printer lines, addresses and phone numbers
  • The size measured against the known printings
  • The mark printed star and G, or pen on top
Were Gruau posters reprinted?

Yes, several. Rouge Baiser was designed in 1949, and an offset edition of the 1970s exists at the same size. Relax was designed in 1961, and a 1980s edition was published by Editions Bonsch. Both later editions still date from Gruau’s lifetime. Modern reproductions exist too: check the size, the paper and the printer line against a known printing.

How do you date a Moulin Rouge or Lido poster?

By the revue it names. Fascination ran at the Moulin Rouge from 1967 to 1970, Frénésie from 1979 to 1983, Formidable from 1989 to 1999. At the Lido, Bonjour la Nuit is 1971, Grand Jeu 1972, Bravissimo 1990. Then check the foot: a Paris number beginning 01 means 1996 or later.

Was it printed in Gruau’s lifetime?

Gruau died in 2004. Every poster in our archive that we can date was printed before then. One, Rouge Baiser, is still being dated: it is either the 1949 printing or the later edition.

Hand-signed, plate-signed, unsigned original, after: what do they mean?

Hand-signed means Gruau signed that copy in pen or pencil; we have none. Plate-signed means his star and G are printed in the design, as on all fifteen of ours. Unsigned original means a lifetime printing with no signature of his. After means printed after his death, or a later reproduction made without him.

Can I see more detail before I buy?

Yes. Ask us for detailed photographs of any poster: the signature, the printer line, the edges and the back.

Condition and framing

We grade condition in six steps and describe every mark (condition grading). Framing is optional, and all our framing is conservation framing (framing original posters).

Fin

René Gruau 1909–2004 · Rimini, Paris, Rome

Research & writing
Printed Originals, last reviewed 1 October 2026
Posters
Printed Originals’ photographs of posters we have handled. René Gruau’s artwork © the Gruau estate; the names of the houses advertised are the property of their owners. Photographs © Printed Originals.
Corrections
If you can document a date or signature we have wrong, we would like to hear from you.
Sources

Poster House (Bemberg, c.1970); the CNC film register (La Dolce Vita, visa 21981); the Somerset House exhibition Dior Illustrated: René Gruau and the Line of Beauty, as reported; Galerie Alexis Pentcheff; Ravenel; reference histories of the Moulin Rouge, the Lido, French telephone numbering and the Maserati Biturbo; dealer records in our source ledger. Signatures, printer lines, revue titles and phone numbers are read from our own photographs.