French Posters

By Isabella Alston

The French poster, born of a basic utilitarian purpose, has developed with age into an admired and collected art form. Vintage posters command high prices at auction and curators specialize in their restoration. The earliest art-worthy posters appeared on the streets of Paris designed by French-born artists such as Jules Chéret, who popularized poster art with his Maîtres de l’Affiche publication from 1895 to 1899, Paul Émile Berthon, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Other poster artists just as well known but hailing from other countries include Eugène Grasset from Switzerland, Alphonse Mucha from what is now the Czech Republic, and Marcello Dudovich from Italy. The Art Nouveau and Art Deco posters created before and after the turn of the 20th century advertised everything from soap to chocolate, bicycles to cars, coffee to cordials, department stores to nightclubs. They promoted the performing artists in the revues, theaters, and cancan lines that dominated nightlife in the City of Light. Travel, another common poster theme, featured modern ocean liners and airlines as well as terribly exotic destinations and European resorts. This book includes examples of the works of the most popular poster artists working in France from 1890 to the 1930s.

• Language: English
• Publisher: TAJ Books International
• Release date: Aug 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781844063796

Isabella Alston

Isabella Alston was born in Los Angeles. As a dual citizen of Switzerland and the USA, she considers both Europe and America home. She is a free-lance writer, artist, and astrologer, currently living on the North Carolina coast with her husband, a US Marine, and their dog, Archer.

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Published by TAJ Books International LLC 2014

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Copyright © 2014 TAJ Books International LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher and copyright holders.

All notations of errors or omissions (author inquiries, permissions) concerning the content of this book should be addressed to [e-mail]. The Publisher believes the use of the poster images at the size depicted qualifes as fair use under United States copyright law.

ISBN 978-1-84406-336-9

978-1-62732-014-6 Paperback

Printed in China

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INTRODUCTION

The poster has been around for hundreds of years, serving first and foremost as a means of communication. The simplest definition of a poster is any form of paper with a printed design or text that is created to be hung on a vertical surface. The poster’s genesis was purely a textual form, most often used for displaying government decrees. One of the earliest, more developed forms of poster was a means of advertisement, such as for one of Shakespeare’s plays. Eventually, posters came to be used as a way to spread propaganda, especially during wartime. Another common use of posters is as a cheap and efficient way to mass-produce popular artworks for the general public’s consumption.

As the printing process became more modernized and streamlined, posters began to include images in addition to text. With the invention of color printing, the poster slowly evolved until its focus was primarily the visual image rather than the text, because an image could relay the desired message more quickly. The purpose of the poster image was to catch the eye of the passerby so that he or she would look more closely at the text for more detailed information.

The tremendous success of the poster can be attributed to one man, Alois Senefelder, and his groundbreaking invention, lithography. Alois Senefelder (1771 to 1834) was a German playwright and actor. He soon discovered that he preferred writing plays more than performing them. But