Alfred Choubrac was a French painter, illustrator, draughtsman, poster artist and costume designer. Together with Jules Chéret he is considered to be one of the pioneers of the modern cultured and illustrated poster of the Belle Époque in France, in particular in Paris. Alfred Choubrac was born in Montmartre (Paris). With his elder brother Léon Choubrac (1847–1885), Alfred was trained as a classical artist at the École des Beaux Arts by the painters Charles Doërr and Isidore Pils. The Choubrac brothers began making posters very early in their career; from 1875, they applied modern Color and typographic techniques, combined with graphics, using chromolithography. In the early 1870s, the Choubrac brothers and Jules Chéret (known as “the father of the modern poster”) reduced the cost of colour lithography introducing technical advances. Additionally, in 1881 restrictions on bill-posting (affichage) were lifted and eased state control of the media in France. In 1884, the Paris city council started to rent out space belonging to the municipality, paving the way for a rapid increase in the production and distribution of advertising posters. Posters with clear colours and dashing images appeared all over town during the vibrant spirit of the Belle Époque. The Choubracs worked mainly with the printing company F. Appel. Later, Léon and Alfred created the Ateliers Choubrac, one of the first graphic design agencies in Paris, originally hosted by the printing press G. Massias at the 17 passage Daudin, using a lithographic press. Around 1898, the name of the Atelier was associated with the name of Imprimerie Bourgerie & Cie, at 83 rue du Faubourg, St Denis in Paris. Although his brother Leon died young, Alfred went on to produce an impressive number of posters for Parisian entertainers, theatres, businesses and various commercial products. Alfred Choubrac specialized in posters for shows in the Parisian night-life scene of the Belle Époque, for theatres such as the Théâtre des Variétés, Théâtre du Châtelet, Folies Bergère, Opéra comique, Moulin rouge, Casino de Paris, the Eldorado, the Circus Fernando. Along with Chéret and Toulouse-Lautrec, amongst others, Choubrac was among the most important poster artist of his time. His most famous poster is Au Joyeux Moulin Rouge to promote the famous nightclub. The poster collector Ernest Maindron, who wrote the first essay about the illustrated poster in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1884, and later published the first book on the subject (Les Affiches Illustrees) in 1886, mentioned the Choubrac brothers and Chéret among the pioneers of the illustrated poster. Maindron praised Choubrac’s bold line, sense of composition and highly decorative skills. According to Maindron, in his subsequent book Les Affiches Illustrees (1886–1895) published in 1896, Choubrac must have drawn more than four hundred posters for theatres, novels and industry products, before he switched his attention to the design of theatrical costumes, in which he was equally successful. Alfred Choubrac died on 25 July 1902 from a cold gone bad.