Fan of the Month September 2026
'Cercle International de Vichy' advertising fan by René Péan, 1900.
Advertising Fan for 'Cercle International de Vichy' by René Péan, 1900, by Hedvig Kovács
The Fan Museum has over 4,000 objects in its collection, and unsurprisingly most of them are fans! Fan of the Month is our digital project, where each month we will publish a piece about one of our fans, allowing you to discover some of the secrets of the collection. For our September 2026 Fan of the Month, we have chosen an advertising fan for the ‘Cercle International de Vichy’, dated around 1900 and illustrated by René Péan. This fan was bequeathed to The Fan Museum in 2015 by Elizabeth Burnell.
The monture of this folding fan is made of wood and it has a double paper colour printed leaf. It was produced by the print workshop of C. Bougarel in Vichy.
The fan advertises the Cercle International Casino in Vichy, France. Founded in 1879, during the Belle Époque period, the Cercle International was one of six casinos of Vichy, built to entertain the large number of affluent visitors who flocked to the renowned spa town.
On the obverse of the fan leaf, three separate illustrations depict some of the popular sports the Cercle International promoted: horse racing, equestrian jumping competitions and pigeon shooting. The reverse features pink cherry blossom and the inscription ‘Cercle International de Vichy’.
This fan is of interest, as Péan (1875 – c.1945) was a French painter, illustrator and poster artist, who apprenticed under Jules Chéret, the master of the Belle Époque poster. Péan’s graphic advertising work mainly focused on travel, tourism, theatre and events, with most of it in the traditional poster format. However, Péan illustrated at least two other fans depicting Vichy, and in recent years two watercolour fan leaves made by the artist were sold at auction.
Notably, Péan illustrated both a poster and a folding fan for the operetta Les P’tites Michu (The Little Michus). Multiple characters are depicted in the same costumes on both pieces. Péan’s advertising fan for Les P’tites Michu is held at the Carnavalet Museum in Paris under object number EV652.
By Hedvig Kovács
