The draftsman and illustrator Ferdinand Lunel was born in Paris in 1857. He took lessons from the classicist genre painter Jean-Léon Gérôme, but then took new paths. He excelled in making accurate, smooth drawings and worked from 1885 to 1890 for various magazines, including Le Chat Noir, La Vie Parisienne, Paris Illustré and Le Figaro. He also provided illustrations for the humorous weekly magazine Le Rire. In the 1990s, Lunel made a name for himself as a poster designer for Parisian theaters and the emerging tourist industry.