“Juan-les-Pins,” Folies-Bergères, Paris

Here Brassaï photographed the stage of the Folies-Bergère cabaret from above, looking down at one of the fantastic tableaux vivants (“living pictures”) performed nightly. On the left, we see the shallow stage in which costumed actors and models pose in front of a painted backdrop, recreating a “postcard” image of bathers at the popular beach resort of Juan-les-Pins on the Côte d’Azur between Nice and Cannes. To the right, we see a large glass which was lowered in front of the stage so that the audience viewed this scene like a Framed photograph under glass, thus combining the art forms of the stage with those of painting and photography.