Identity:

Yvette Guilbert was a music hall singer.

Life:

Yvette Guilbert also became a stage and film actress. However she is most remembered for her years in Paris in the 1890s as a singer of risqué cabaret songs at the Moulin Rouge, Les Ambassadeurs and the Folies-Bergère. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec made numerous studies of her of which the most famous is a poster of her in a yellow dress and long black gloves. In January 1892 JW went to the Moulin Rouge ('big noisy and rowdy') with his friend William Heinemann and heard her sing (#06606). Later in life she wrote an autobiography La Chanson de ma vie, published in 1929, and two novels.

Bibliography:

Encyclopedia Britannica, on-line edition, http://search.eb.com (accessed 17 August 2004).