Eugénie Buffet, théâtre de la République - affiche de Léopold Stevens
The pattern
This still is filed under Iconic figure claim.
Define
A single figure, drawn, silhouetted, or posed, is the whole claim. You can read it across a street.
Mechanism
Compression into a body. The figure is not decoration. It is the sentence. Distance-legibility is the test.
Verdict
Poster scale, outdoor, packaging at a glance
Why it works
Turning the star's back to the audience is the whole idea: it makes the poster a scene from the street rather than a portrait for sale, and the raised sheaf of song sheets becomes the gesture that identifies her trade. The onlooker is drawn as outline with no fill, so he reads as attention rather than as a second character competing for the eye. The four lettering blocks are placed in the four empty corners of the composition, which lets the figure stay uncropped while the name, the frequency, the billing and the venue each get their own field.
Steal this when
Steal this when the performer's credibility comes from the world they depict and a glamour portrait would break it. The corner-block lettering layout is right whenever one strong silhouette must stay intact and four separate facts still have to be read.