Jane Avril, a close friend of Toulouse-Lautrec’s, commissioned this poster from him for a London performance of the Dancing Troup of Madmoiselle Eglantine. Avril was one of the members of the cancan troupe and is portrayed on the left end of the dancing line. Their performance was not well received in London. It is useful to compare Toulouse-Lautrec’s images of dancers to those of Chéret, whose style dominated promotional posters at the time. Here Lautrec parodies Chéret’s frothy vision of floating beauties by adding discordant details to the otherwise joyous depiction of the jaunty cancan. While the dancers are linked together by shapely legs and a flurry of petticoats, they are by no means all young and pretty. In fact, the sour scowl of the nearest dancer reflects the physical strain of the profession.