La Goulue, the sinful stage name of French can-can dancer Louise Weber, known as the Queen of Montmartre. The legendary dancer is immortalised here along with the infamous Moulin Rouge cabaret on a poster by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, reprinted decades later on a small wood block in a Vienna bookshop.
The poster was originally printed in 1891 to advertise La Goulue and her dance partner Valentin le Désossé (Valentin the Boneless), and of course the newly opened nightclub that would eventually become a Paris icon. The Queen of Montmartre was in her heyday here, at the peak of a glorious career.
The dancer left the Moulin Rouge to try her luck on her own, but sadly she wasn't able to succeed and ended up back outside the cabaret, broke, destitute and an alcoholic, selling cigarettes and peanuts on a street corner. But La Goulue lives on as one of the original can-can dancers of La Belle Epoque, not a bad legacy to leave behind.