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diff --git a/45555.txt b/45555.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..52ea156 --- /dev/null +++ b/45555.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3060 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Picture Posters, by Charles Hiatt + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Picture Posters + A Short History of the Illustrated Placard with Many + Reproductions of the Most Artistic Examples in all Countries + +Author: Charles Hiatt + +Illustrator: Various + +Release Date: May 1, 2014 [EBook #45555] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PICTURE POSTERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger from page images generously +provided by the Internet Archive + + + + + + + + + +PICTURE POSTERS + +A Short History Of The Illustrated Placard With Many Reproductions Of +The Most Artistic Examples In All Countries + +By Charles Hiatt + +London: George Bell And Sons New York + +MDCCCXCVI + +Second Edition + + + + +PREFACE. + +In the present volume an attempt has been made briefly to trace (the +history of the picture poster from the earliest times!) and to comment +upon and reproduce some of the most noteworthy examples in various +countries. The English and American placards have received special +attention, while the best examples of the French school have not +been overlooked. With very few exceptions, only posters signed, or +acknowledged, by the artists producing them, are included among the +illustrations. The whole subject is treated from the point of view +rather of art than of commerce. While it is believed that this book is +the first which deals in English with the Pictorial Poster, the author +desires to recognize his indebtedness to M. Maindron's work, and to +the catalogues of M. Sagot and Mr. Bella. The last-named has rendered +material aid by lending, for the purpose of reproduction, not a few +examples contained in his collection. + +To name the artists and owners of valuable copyrights who have laid +the author under obligations would, however carefully compiled, almost +certainly contain serious omissions. It is hoped, therefore, that those +whose names would figure in such a list will acquit him of intentional +discourtesy or ingratitude. Special thanks are due to Mr. Gleeson White +for his editorial work in connexion with this volume; indeed, whatever +merits it may possess are due, in no small degree, to his care and +assiduity. Although personally unknown to the writer, Mr. Spiel-mann has +been so good as to assist materially in the matter of illustration. To +the kindness of M. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is owing the frontispiece +in the shape of a hitherto unpublished study for a poster; while the +reproduction of a sketch for the "Phit-Eesi" placard was courteously +consented to by Mr. Dudley Hardy, and Messrs. Vaterlow who printed +the poster itself. The cover has been specially drawn by Mr. Charles +Ffoulkes, to whom the writer desires to express his sincere thanks. The +Artistic Supply Company (Limited) have been so good as to consent to +the reproduction of unpublished copyright designs by Messrs. Bernard +Partridge, Max Cowper, the Brothers Beggarstaff, Sydney Adamscm, Kerr +Lawson, A. R. Wilson, and Lewis Baumer. A design, representing Sir Henry +Irving as "Don Quixote" is illustrated here owing to the kindness of +Miss Ellen Terry, who owns the original. + +Charles Hiatt + +October, 1895. + +PICTURE POSTERS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. THE STORY OF THE PICTORIAL POSTER + +It would be merely foolish to pretend that the pictorial poster, +looked at from the point of view of art, is of the same importance as +a portrait by Velasquez or an etching by Rembrandt. Its aesthetic +qualities have of necessity to be subordinated to its commercial +qualities; the artist is the servant of the tradesman. His first +business is not to achieve a decoration, but to call the attention of +the man in the street to the merits of an article. He may be fantastic +only in so far as his fantasy assists the advertisement; he must ever +keep before his eyes the narrow object of his effort. The closest limits +are set to his invention; it is not for him to do what he will, but +rather to do what he must. Under such circumstances, it is, at the first +blush, somewhat surprising that artists have condescended to the poster +at all. The bounds of freedom in the cases of painting and of sculpture +are, comparatively speaking, so wide that one is not unnaturally +amazed that the artist of talent is willing to work within the strict +limitations imposed on him in the production of a pictorial poster. And +yet, after all, to the ingenious designer there is a certain fascination +in the very strictness of these limits; the complexity of the problem +allures him, and gives him the appetite for experiment. Moreover, if he +believe that art is something more than a vague grace, a non-essential +luxury, he is ever anxious to extend her domain, to make her empire +universal. He believes it to be his mission to touch some ugly +necessity, to inform it with art, and, in doing so, to adorn it. He +is restless for new worlds to conquer, for fresh fields to occupy. His +ideal is art everywhere, art in all. He would fain give style and grace +even to the paraphernalia of commerce: the necessities of trade shall +not be hideous if he can make them otherwise. And so it happens that +he is willing, nay eager, to turn his attention to the poster, with +the result that the hoarding becomes an interesting, even a charming, +gallery of designs. What was one of the most hideous of human inventions +is transformed into a delight to the eyes. Colour and interest are added +to the street; the gay and joyous take the place of the dull and ugly. + +It follows, supposing that I have stated the case fairly, that it is +not derogatory to the dignity, even of a very great artist, to apply his +talent to the poster. + +It is clear that the poster is one of the oldest and most obvious forms +of advertisement. It is almost impossible to conceive a time in the +history of man, once he had learned to express his thoughts in design or +in writing, when the idea of the thing did not exist. It must have been +an incident of the most crude and ancient of civilizations; even the +cave-dweller in the dim and distant past must surely have possessed the +essential idea of it. From the cave-dweller to the comparatively complex +civilization of the ancient and greater Egypt is a far cry. That the +mural inscription, which is obviously the germ of the poster, flourished +exceedingly in the Land of the Pharaohs is matter of history. A papyrus +is comprised in the collections of the Louvre, which may fairly be +described as a poster. It is dated so early as 146 b.c., and deals +at length with the escape of two slaves from the city of Alexandria, +offering a reward to anybody who should discover their place of retreat. +Still more interesting, though less ancient, is an inscription in Greek, +discovered in the Temple at Jerusalem, in 1872, by M. Clermont-Gannerau. +It was issued during the reign of Herod the Great, and forbids the +entry, by foreigners, to certain parts of the Temple on pain of death. + +Of the poster in Greece we know very little. Legal inscriptions were +undoubtedly written on whitened walls, or on axones, the latter being +wooden tablets painted white, and made to revolve slowly on an upright +axis. In passing from Greece to Rome, we pass from somewhat fragmentary +to comparatively exact: information. The Roman notice-board was called +an _album_, and it is a matter of dispute whether it was white with +black letters, or of a dark colour with the text in white. Anybody who +took away, destroyed, or mutilated an album was liable to an _actio +albi corrupti_, and to heavy damages besides. It appears to have been +invented in the first place, in order to give publicity to the annual +edict of the Praetor; subsequently, however, the word album was used to +signify any tablet on which a public announcement was inscribed. +The ruins of Pompeii have furnished us with at least one interesting +fragment of an album, on which are written notices of the most diverse +kinds. Amongst them are the following: + +FAMILIA. GLADIATORIA VENATIO. ET. VELA. + +and: + +A. SVETTII. CERII. + +AEDILIS. FAMILIA. GLADIATORIA. PUGNAVIT. POMPEIS. PR. K. IVNIAS. +VENATIO. ET. VELA. ERUNT. + +and again: + +DEDICATIONS THERMARUM. MUNERIS. + +ENAI. ALLEI. NIGIDII. + +MAII. VENALIO. ATHELA. + +SPARSIONES. VELA. + +ERUNT. MAIO. PRINCIPI. + +COLON IAE. FELICITER. + +As for the Roman bookseller, he was in the habit of placarding his shop +with the titles of books just published, or about to be published. Take, +for instance, the shop described by Martial in the lines: + + " Contra Caesaris est forum taberna, + + Scriptis postibus hinc et inde totis, + + Omnes ut cito perlegas poetas. + + Illinc me pete. + +The actor has never been inclined to hide his light under a bushel. +Advertisement has always been dear to him, and it is not surprising +to find that the Roman actor made the most of the opportunity of the +publicity offered to him by the _album._ Not content with having +his name inscribed in gigantic letters, he went a step further, and +anticipated the illustrated _affiche_. Just as Sarah Bernhardt employs +the decorative skill of Grasset to depict her as Joan of Arc, so did the +old Roman actor employ Callades, an artist mentioned very favourably +by Pliny, to portray him in his favourite parts. Callades would seem to +have been the Cheret of his age: he was the great artistic advertiser of +ancient Rome, just as Cheret is the great artistic advertiser of modern +Paris. + +It is obvious, then, that the idea of the illustrated poster existed +among the Romans: the difference between Callades and Cheret is one of +method rather than of vital principle. And even the difference in method +is slight. + +Of the poster in the time which immediately succeeded the fall of the +Roman Empire we have very little trustworthy information. It is possible +that the Romans introduced the album into Gaul and into Britain, and +that the sight of it became as familiar to the inhabitants of Eboracum +and Uriconium as it was to the natives of Rome and Pompeii. A French +historian of distinction has stated that the _affiche_ was employed by +the earliest of the kings of France, but this statement can hardly +be said to be borne out by facts. It is at least certain that the +signboard, which is a variation of the pictorial poster, was employed in +the early part of the Middle Ages. The poster, unless illustrated, would +have been useless in a community in which the art of writing was held +effeminate, in which the most illustrious knight openly boasted of his +inability to sign his name. The principal means of advertisement at that +time was the public crier. As early as the twelfth century the criers of +France formed an organized body, "for," as Mr. Sampson tells us in his +_History of Advertising_, "by a charter of Louis VII. granted in the +year 1141 to the inhabitants of the province of Berry, the old custom +of the country was confirmed, according to which there were to be only +twelve criers, five of whom should go about the taverns crying with +their usual cry, and carrying with them samples of the wine they cried +in order that people might taste. For the first time they blew the +horn they were entitled to a penny, and the same for every time after, +according to custom.... These wine-criers are mentioned by John de +Garlando, a Norman writer, who was probably contemporary with William +the Conqueror." The wine-crier is frequently mentioned in early French +street-ballads. To instance one of them: + + "Si crie l'on en plusors leurs + + Si bon vui fort a trente deux + + A seize, a douze, a six, a huiet." + +In England also the crier was an early institution, for we find one +Edmund le Criour mentioned in a document dated 1299. Even when the crier +was the pre-eminent advertiser, the poster, or at least the handbill, +had its place. At first the bills were written, but almost as soon +as Caxton introduced the newly-discovered art of printing they were +produced by that method. Perhaps the earliest English poster is that +by which Caxton, about the year 1480, announced the "Pyes of Salisbury +Use," at the Red Pole in the Almonry at Westminster. The size of this +broadside is five inches by seven, and the text runs as follows: + +"If it please any man spirituel or temporel to bye our pyes of two or +thre comemo-racio's of Salisburi use, emprunted after the form of +this prese't lettre, which ben wel and truly correct, late hym come to +West-monster, into the almonestrye at the reed pole ane he shall have +them good and chepe. + + "Supplico stet cedula." + +The "pyes" in question, it may be noted, were a series of diocesan +rules. + +It is in the sixteenth century that we meet with the poster properly so +called. For example, we have a royal proclamation of Francois I relating +to the police of the city of Paris, which runs: "Nous voulons que ces +presentes ordonnances soient publiees tous les moys de l'an, par tous +les quarrefours de cette ville de Paris et faux bourgs d'icelle, a son +de trompe et cry public. Et neantmoins quelles soient attachees a un +tableau, escriptes en parche-main et en grosse lettre, en tous les seize +quartiers de ladite ville de Paris es esdietz faux bourgs, et lieux +les plus eminents et apparens d'iceulx, afin qu'elles soient cognues +et entendues parfun chacun. Et qu'il ne soit loysible oster les dictz +tableaux, sur peine de punition corporelle, dont les dictz commissaires +auront la charge chacun en son quartier." + +The words "attachees a un tableau, escriptes en parchemain et en grosse +lettre" leave no doubt that the poster as we now know it was a usual +method of advertisement in the reign of Francois Ier. The _affiche_ +soon after received the attention of the French legislature, for the +production and exhibition of posters of certain kinds in France, +was expressly forbidden by "un arret du Parlement" dated the 7th of +February, 1652. To publishers and booksellers, however, the privilege of +posting the titles of their new books was specially reserved. + +As printing became less expensive and methods for the mechanical +reproduction of pictures and designs were discovered, it needed no +great ingenuity to add emphasis to the poster by means of pictorial +illustration. Acrobats, the stall-keepers at fairs on the ice, and the +like, were speedily induced to adorn their advertisements with rude +drawings, while Royal proclamations were usually decorated heraldically. +Early in the eighteenth century, the bills announcing the departure and +arrival of coaches were headed by pictures, as for example the one which +related to the Birmingham coach in 1731. + +Even earlier in date, there are illustrated advertisements relating to +the Roman Catholic church. One of these, produced in France, dated 1602, +is very curious and elaborate in design. While, however, many posters +such as this are profoundly interesting to the archaeologist, they can +hardly be considered works of art. It is not until the middle of the +present century is reached that we find important examples of pictorial +poster deliberately planned by an artist. The modern artistic poster +movement, as we shall see in the next chapter, had its origin in Paris +some fifty years ago. + + + + +CHAPTER II.--IN FRANCE DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY + +|As we have seen, the idea of the poster, and even of the pictorial +poster, is an extremely ancient one, but it is only at the commencement +of the present century that distinguished designers deliberately +attempted to make the pictorial poster a work of art. The few posters, +at once pictorial and artistic, which are of earlier date than the +time in question, are artistic by accident rather than by deliberate +intention. So early, however, as the year 1836, we find a really +distinguished French artist, Lalance, producing a poster. Lalance was, +perhaps, the pioneer of pioneers, and his advertisement for the book, +"Comment Meurent Les Femmes," if not of great artistic interest, cannot +be overlooked in any book dealing with the history of art as applied +to the poster. Only a fewr copies exist. Immediately succeeding him, +we have Celestin Nanteuil engaged in producing an advertisement for an +edition of "Robert Macaire," dated 1837. The year following, Rafifet +brought out his "Napoleon de Norvins." This work is signed as well as +dated. Raffet, in addition to the "Napoleon de Norvins," designed two +more posters dealing with the career of the great emperor as well as the +history of Algeria. Very soon after comes an important _affiche_, "Le +Prado," by Eugene Gauche, and from that time the artistic poster became +an established institution. + +It may be fairly stated that the direct cause of the artistic poster in +France was the illustrated book. The illustrated book, issued in weekly +or monthly numbers, has always appealed keenly to the French, and it is +usual to give the first number for nothing to all who care to ask for +it. The illustrators of these books were very frequently induced by the +publishers of them to do a poster advertising the edition of the works +they had illustrated. Sometimes one of the illustrations in the book was +merely enlarged and lithographed, but more generally the artist made a +special design. Perhaps, at the time, the most widely known among French +producers of the _affiche illustre_ was Gavarni. The vogue for the works +of this eminent illustrator and satirist is perhaps not so great as +it was twenty years ago. At all events, the value of his works is not +nearly so great as it was then, and it has become usual to talk of him +in a manner which is patronizing rather than genuinely appreciative. It +may be that his + +[Illustration: 0034] + +savage and grotesque point of view discounts his merits as an artist. +His power and originality, however, few will deny. + +Among the posters which he designed, one of the most characteristic is +the "Oeuvres Choisis." The original is extremely rare, + +[Illustration: 0035] + +but a copy exists in a folio volume in the British Museum, in which +one or two other posters by Gavarni will be found. For the "Almanach +Imperial, 1846," by + +[Illustration: 0036] + +E. Marco de S. Hilaire, illustrated by Bertrand, a poster (which was, +perhaps, an enlargement of the cover) exists. It is a very + +[Illustration: 0037] + +OUVRAGE COMPLET, a jingo affair, representing the French emperor +standing on the globe with the imperial eagle of France at his feet. +Of a little later date are several interesting posters by Grandville. +Amongst them are "Les Metamorphoses du Jour" (of which a number + +[Illustration: 0038] + +of pigs in different costumes is the main feature), "Des Animaux," "Ma +Tante," "Petit Misere," and "St. Helene." Of the two latter I need say +nothing, since they are reproduced here, save that they are included +in the collection of the British Museum. An illustrated poster very +characteristic of + +[Illustration: 0039] + +its period, insomuch as it is intensely grotesque, is the "Voyage ou +il vous plaira," by Tony Johannot. Its central figures are a +monstrous dwarf holding a lantern, a crouching dragon, and an immense +notice-board. An _affiche_ which is, perhaps, of + +[Illustration: 0040] + +even more general interest, is one done for an illustrated edition of +"Don Quichotte," in which the very perfect, gentle knight is represented +with a grotesqueness which would certainly have astonished Cervantes +himself. Of a similar kind is the "Nains Celebres," by E. de Beaumont. +An illustrated poster of a kind utterly different to the one last +discussed is by T. H. Frere. It was designed for the advertisement of a +work entitled "La Touraine," by Stanislas Bellanger de Tours. Under no +circumstances should one overlook an _affiche_ of about the same +period on account of the great personality of its designer. It is very +generally admitted that the name of Edouard Manet is one of the greatest +in the history of modern painting. It would indeed be difficult to +over-estimate the extent of his influence on the pictorial art of the +day. The poster reproduced in these pages is not unworthy his great +talent. It is curious to notice that Manet and Fred. Walker, an English +artist of about the same time, as to whose genius all are agreed, should +have been at one in their endeavour to make the illustrated poster +artistic as well as merely pictorial. + +I have not attempted to deal with any save the most prominent of the +great number of French designers who took part in the poster movement +during the fifties. Their names and the titles of some of their works +will be found in the first catalogue of M. Ed. Sagot, and valuable +criticism is contained in the pages of M. Maindron. + +[Illustration: 0042] + + + + +CHAPTER III.--IN FRANCE. THE WORK OF CHERET, GRASSET, AND TOULOUSE-LAUTREC + +|So many contemporary French artists are designing posters, that a +single chapter dealing with them all would be of an alarming length. I +have therefore, in the first place, separated from their fellows three +who seem to me curiously individual and worthy of careful consideration. +Of the men whose names head this chapter, pre-eminence is due, for +various reasons, to Jules Cheret, whose position, in the matter of +poster-designing, is quite without parallel. + +It may be that men of rarer, of more fascinating, talent have now and +again devoted themselves to the _affiche_; but none of them can compare +with Cheret in the magnitude and curiosity of his achievement. Many +have produced charming wall pictures: nobody, save Cheret, has made an +emphatic mark on the aspect of a metropolis. Paris, without its Cherets, +would be Paris without one of its most pronounced characteristics; +Paris, moreover, with its gaiety of aspect materially diminished. The +great masses of variegated colour formed by Cheret's posters greet one +joyously as one passes every hoarding, smile at one from the walls of +every cafe, arrest one before the windows of every kiosque. The merits +of the Saxoleine lamp, the gaieties of the Moulin Rouge, the charms +of Loie Fuller, the value of a particular brand of cough-lozenges, are +insisted upon with a good-humoured vehemence of which Jules Cheret alone +appears to know the secret. Others, in isolated cases, have possibly +achieved more compelling decorations, but none can pretend to a success +so uniform and so unequivocal. Few men as richly endowed with the gift +of decoration would! have been content to produce work which, were +it not for the portfolio of the collector, would be of an entirely +ephemeral character. It must be irritating to the artist to watch the +gradual destruction of his chefs-d'oeuvre, condemned as they are to +be torn by every wind, soaked by every shower, blistered by the sun, +blurred by the fog. It is natural that he should turn his eyes longingly +to the comparative permanence of canvas, marble, or bronze; and it +says much for Cheret's confidence in his artistic mission for his nice +realization of his possibilities and limitations that he has remained +faithful to the _affiche_ for over twenty years. Now and + +[Illustration: 0046] + +[Illustration: 0048] + +again, it is true, he has turned aside to do work of more universally +recognized and more pretentious a character, and the very fact that he +has touched scarcely anything which he has not adorned, emphasises his +fidelity to a branch of art until quite recently despised and held of +little moment. It is, indeed, mainly owing to this devotion, to this +lavish expense of talent, that the poster is not even now considered +beneath the dignity of the collector. The judicious, as soon as their +eyes fell upon Cheret's vast lithographs, decided that he was no +mere colour-printer's hack, but an artist whose work would have to be +reckoned with. There was something positively alluring in the spectacle +of a man who calmly placed his gift at the disposal of the tradesman, +who accepted without murmur the limitations which the tradesman imposed +upon him. It is possible that, had it not been for the circumstances of +his life, the streets of Paris would have remained undecorated, so far +as Cheret was concerned, to this day. Commencing as the humblest of +lithographers, Cheret did not take up art of set intention, but passed +irresistibly, though it may be unconsciously, into it. After long years +of patient and tedious work as an ordinary lithographer, at the dawn +of the year 1866, he commenced what was destined to be the most notable +series of pictorial posters in existence, a series containing over a +thousand items, and one which happily has yet to close. It is doubtless +the conditions of his early life, the lessons learned while under the +yoke of trade, that have enabled Cheret to appreciate to the full +that the first business of an advertisement is to advertise. Avoiding, +therefore, all subtle harmonies, he goes in for contrasts of colour, +violent, it is true, but victorious in their very violence. Blazing +reds, hard blues, glowing yellows, uncompromising greens, are flung +together, apparently haphazard, but in reality after the nicest +calculation, with the result that the great pictures, when on the +hoardings, insist positively on recognition. One might as well attempt +to ignore a fall of golden rain, as to avoid stopping to look at them; +they are so many riots of colour, triumphant in their certainty of +fascinating and bewildering the passerby. + +As may be imagined, Cheret's skill has fullest scope when dealing with +the lightest and gayest subjects: a _cascade de clowns_--to borrow +a phrase of Huysman--an entrance of ballet girls; a joyous troupe of +children, contented because toy-laden; these, and the like, are subjects +most congenial to him. His style is essentially the outcome of the day. +It possesses no decorative forerunners; it is not a thing derived; its +parents are the gaieties of modern Paris. It is intensely actual, and in +its actuality lies, it + +[Illustration: 0052] + +seems to me, its greatest claim to consideration. It is infused with a +somewhat hectic gaiety which holds a not unimportant place in the lives +of us suffering from this "sick disease of modern life." Of the sick +disease itself, Cheret gives no hint. He is unflagging in his vivacity, +unswerving in his insistence on the _joie de vivre_; instead of +pondering over the inevitable sorrow of life, he busies himself +depicting the naive grace of the child, the elegance of the mondaine. +His gifts lead him inevitably to such subjects. His merit as a +draughtsman lies, in part, in vivacious rather than correct line: +gaiety, as we have seen, is the chief quality of his colour: his +composition is remarkable on account of the piquancy and appropriateness +of its detail. He chooses with unerring fidelity the subjects suited +to his temperament and his gifts. These subjects are not of infinite +variety, and it follows that if one sees a great quantity of Cheret's +work together, one becomes aware of a certain feeling of monotony. One +can be satiated even of Cheret's gaiety and joyousness. + +To attempt any account of Cheret's thousand and more posters, is +obviously impossible in any but an elaborate monograph devoted +exclusively to him. I can do no more here than comment on a few of the +most striking. It may be stated generally, that while the earlier ones +are rarest because most difficult to procure, the more recent designs +show the artist at his best. A mastery of chromo-lithography such +as his, cannot be obtained without many essays, some of which are +foredoomed to failure. In addition, Cheret has gradually improved alike +in the splendour of his colour, and the disposal of his pattern. Perhaps +he has never been happier in his treatment of children than in one or +two of the "Buttes-Chaumont" series. The joy of the little ones in the +possession of their new playthings is contagious. Utterly different in +kind, though not less conspicuously successful, is "Les Coulisses de +l'Opera au Musee Grevin," a delightfully piquant representation of a +group of premieres danseuses in the traditional costume. As a specimen +of amazingly effective and strangely beautiful colour, it would be +difficult to exceed the "Loie Fuller" series; while, in the matter of +pert gracefulness, Cheret has done nothing more delicious than the chic +little lady in the yellow dress who smiles at you in the "Pantomimes +Lumineuses." Anybody who could resist her fascinations would be a rival +to St. Anthony. No collector of course, will overlook the great series +of _affiches_ which Cheret has contrived for the Folies Bergere, the +Moulin Rouge, the Alcazar d'Ete, and similar places of amusement In +order to sum up his talent as a designer of posters, Cheret has produced +four decorative panels, which, although without lettering, + +[Illustration: 0056] + +[Illustration: 0058] + +[Illustration: 0060] + +[Illustration: 0062] + +[Illustration: 0064] + +[Illustration: 0066] + +are posters to all intents and purposes, and would take their places on +a hoarding quite admirably. The subjects are most happily chosen; who, +better than Cheret, could symbolize, in manner light and fantastic, +music, comedy, pantomime, and dancing? The designs gain immensely, +insomuch as they are not disfigured with a legend, for, in spite of +the fact that the disposal of the lettering is of the very essence of +a poster, Cheret, for some reason known only to himself, leaves that +detail of his work to another designer, with results by no means +uniformly fortunate. Before leaving Cheret, it is only just to him to +point out that his work loses more than that of almost any other artist, +in the process of reproduction in black and white. It is impossible to +convey any idea of his amazing colour by means of a halftone block, +and therefore, fewer reproductions of his designs are included in these +pages than might be expected. Needless to say, he suffers greatly from +more or less unskilful imitators. For this reason, combined with the +fact that he is engaged on a series of decorations for the Paris Hotel +de Ville, his excursions into the art of the hoarding will be less +frequent than has been the case hitherto. + +To turn from Cheret to Eugene Grasset, is to turn to an artist in whose +art career the poster is merely an incident. Grasset is a paragon of +versatility; there are literally no bounds to his comprehensiveness. +Besides being a painter of distinction, he has designed everything, from +stained glass to book-covers, from piano-cases to menus. Unlike +Cheret, he has been profoundly impressed by the work of old decorative +designers; he has certainly not disdained to borrow; his borrowings, +however, have been at once legitimate and intelligent. The Japanese, the +old Italians, and in a less degree, the ancient Greeks, have been laid +under contribution, with results which, if not amazingly original, +are at least delightful. It would be idle to pretend that, from the +standpoint of the advertiser, Grasset is the equal of Cheret. His sense +of beauty, his passion for decoration, make it impossible for him to +achieve the daring and victorious colour which is so effective in the +work of Cheret. A panel of his posters, side by side with a panel of +those of Cheret, is as a beautiful and somewhat quiet-hued wall-paper to +a cascade of flowers of every conceivable colour. While, however, this +is an important matter from the advertiser's point of view, it is of +little moment to the collector, whose primary object is to fill his +portfolios with things of beauty. At times, indeed, Grasset does achieve +irresistible advertisement; nobody, for instance, could overlook the +superb representation of Sarah Bernharct as "Jeanne d'Arc," standing +with splendid disdain amidst a forest of spears + +[Illustration: 0070] + +[Illustration: 0072] + +and a shower of arrows, and waving above her head a great silken banner +embroidered with the _fleur-de-lis_. Again, one lingers before the +"Fetes de Paris," attracted by its + +[Illustration: 0074] + +fine decorative qualities. Of an entirely different kind is the +delicious little poster which the artist did for an exhibition of his +own work at the Salon des Cent in 1894; in the naive simplicity of the +thing, combined with its fine decorative quality, there is a hint of +Botticelli and the old Italians. The contrast between this poster, +slightly archaic as it is, and the realistic "Odeon Theatre" is +complete. The latter represents a charmingly graceful girl, in a +delicious modern gown, watching a play. She is accompanied by a +highly-proper looking matron, whose self-importance is enhanced by the +possession of a handsome dress and a wealth of jewels. Very pretty, +again, is the "Librairie Romantique," with the facade of Notre Dame in +the background. Less worthy of Grasset is the "A la Place Clichy," which, +in spite of the majestic old oriental who descants on the merits of an +elaborate carpet to a critical European, is somewhat commonplace. Among +the other productions of this artist, some of them excellent, but +not calling for special description, are the "Histoire de France," +"Napoleon," "Chocolat Mexicain," and "L'Encre Marquet," as well as those +done to advertise a work on the capital cities of the world, and the +exhibition of the productions of French decorative artists held in 1893 +at the Grafton Gallery. A bill designed for the South of France Railway +Company is curious, insomuch as it is unlike the other productions of +its designer. It consists of a series of pleasant little landscapes +wreathed in the characteristic fruits and flowers of the Riviera. The +colour is striking and the + +[Illustration: 0076] + +[Illustration: 0078] + +poster full of sunshine. It is one of the merits of Grasset that he is +not, even in what is to him so small a matter as poster-designing, the +slave of a single style, + +[Illustration: 0080] + +although all his works are obviously from the same hand. Before leaving +him, it should in fairness be stated that the lettering of his bills is +ever appropriate and decorative. True artist that he is, he neglects no +detail whatsoever; in the smallest thing + +[Illustration: 0081] + +as in the greatest, he is not merely scrupulous, but even fastidious. + +It is no dispraise of Cheret and Grasset to say that the work of Henri +de Toulouse-Lautrec is more fascinating than theirs. The designs of the +former two are alike in + +[Illustration: 0082] + +that they are charming, though charming in manner entirely different; +Lautrec's productions, alluring and powerful as they are, can by no +stretch of the word be so described. He does not seek to attract you +by joyousness of colour or grace of pattern, but rather to compel +your attention by the force of his realism or the curiosity of his +grotesqueness. For his posters are at once realistic and grotesque; they +are delineations of life as seen by a man who, possessing the most acute +powers of observation, is poignantly impressed by the incongruities +of modern life, the physical peculiarities of modern men. He has some +points of similarity with Hogarth, with Rowlandson; and the like, but +his art is quite non-moral; he has no mission to depict vice as either +hideous or ridiculous. His extraordinary "Reine de Joie," perhaps the +most powerful, and certainly the least agreeable, of his posters, is a +statement of fact rather than a criticism. This great bill, owing to +the vehemence of the expression on the faces of the three people it +represents, to the wonderful vigour of its line, to its extraordinarily +effective, though simple, colour, is one of the most powerful designs of +the kind ever accomplished. It may be doubted whether any book has been +advertised in so unforgettable a manner as _La Reine de Joie_. + +For the Paris _cafe chantant_ artiste who possesses the charming name +of Jane Avril, this designer has devised a grotesque decoration, which +could not fail imperiously to call attention to her talents as a dancer. +Inspired it may be by her name, it may be + +[Illustration: 0084] + +by a happy accident, Lautrec has employed a scheme of colour in which +are found the pale + +[Illustration: 0086] + +tulip. Once having seen this work, the name, and indeed something of +the personality, of Jane Avril is impressed on one's mind. Moreover, +one easily recalls this unassuming poster vividly, when works of art, +consecrated by the admiration of generations of critics, are quite +forgotten, or only faintly remembered. No man of more passionate and +curious talent than Aristide Bruant has ever devoted himself to the +business of light amusement, and it was no doubt quite congenial to +Lautrec to advertise the performances which he gives in his cabaret. +Again, the artist's picture of another entertainer, Caudieux, +represented in the act of quitting the stage, is masterly for its +indication of movement and its powerful characterization. Bad from +the advertiser's point of view, but most interesting from that of the +collector, is the extremely rare "Le Pendu," a production which for +weird and intense tragedy compares to advantage with any of the artist's +posters. Scarcely less rare, though by no means so important, is the +_affiche_ done to advertise the performances of La Goulue at the Moulin +Rouge. A far more agreeable design is the "Divan Japonais," in which a +fearful and wonderful girl, accompanied by a man as fashionable as he +seems to be imbecile, is represented under the spell of Yvette Guilbert, +whose tall, thin figure is seen across the orchestra, her arms, in the +famous black gloves, being + +[Illustration: 0088] + +[Illustration: 0090] + +[Illustration: 0092] + +[Illustration: 0094] + +crossed in front of her with characteristic nonchalance. + +It is in no way astonishing that Mile. Guilbert has strongly attracted +Lautrec, and that he has frequently made her the subject of his work. +No music-hall performer has, so far, approached this brilliant woman in +ability or in artistic prestige. Like Patti and Sarah Bernhardt, she is +implored to testify to the merits of every brand of soap or every new +perfume; like them her reputation extends beyond the bounds of her +native place, and she is the admired of several foreign capitals. If +the flower of French art and literature assemble to honour Zola, the +proceedings are incomplete without a song from her; if the fastidious +De Goncourt is presented with the rosette of the Legion of Honour, what +more fitting than that she should deliver a recitation? In some degree +she sees the life of modern Paris in the same light as Lautrec; her +wonderful delineations are realistic as are his, though their realism is +touched with a suspicion of the grotesque. Amongst other things, she +has inspired Lautrec to a series of illustrations remarkable alike in +drawing and colour; and he has not disdained to design lithographs to +adorn the covers of different items of her _repertoire_. Owing to his +kindness, I am enabled to reproduce, as the frontispiece to this +volume, a sketch for a poster which he designed for her, but which, +unfortunately, has never got beyond the experimental stage. It seems to +me a specially interesting example of a remarkable talent applied to a +very congenial subject. The posters of Lautrec are something more than +works of art; they are human documents strangely eloquent of their +moment. For this reason, their value may be more permanent than that of +the productions either of Cheret or Grasset, delightfully fantastic as +are the former, charmingly decorative as are the latter. + + + + +CHAPTER IV.--IN FRANCE: THE WORK OF WILLETTE, FORAIN, STEINLEN + +ANQUETIN, BONNARD, IBELS, VALLOTON, DE FEURE, AND McTIVET + +|It is not for a moment to be pretended that the artists with whom this +chapter deals are in any sense members of a single school: they have, +indeed, many more points of difference than of similarity. I deal with +them together, because, speaking roughly, their designs are saturated +with the spirit of the day: their decorations are realistic, rather than +fantastic or picturesque. They lean towards Lautrec, rather than towards +Cheret or Grasset, but they are in no sense his imitators; some of them, +indeed, are actually his predecessors. + +Willette is an artist of such astonishing facility and variety, that he +has, comparatively speaking, devoted little time to the _affiche_, +and save in one or two conspicuous instances, he has failed to achieve +compelling advertisements. And yet his artistic personality is so +curious and so powerful that his posters are nearly all interesting to +the collector,-more interesting to the collector, it may well be, than +satisfactory to the advertiser. Willette is master of several manners. +He can be realistic to the point of brutality, symbolical, graceful; +while now and then he is almost austerely classical. There are, happily, +few posters so impregnated with race hatred as the anti-Semitic +bill intended to forward the artist's candidature at the _Elections +legislatives_ of the 22nd of September, 1889. The design is ugly in the +last degree, but it is, nevertheless, strangely powerful. Very different +and very much more pleasing is the lithograph in black-admirably +composed and executed--which advertised the successful pantomime, +entitled L'Enfant Prodigue. The design is at once graceful and dramatic, +and it is not surprising that a proof before letters is one of the gems +of a collection of the posters of Willette. No more interesting +souvenir of an experiment which fascinated both Paris and London can be +conceived. Again, the bill advertising the International Exhibition +of Commerce and Industry, held some time ago at the Champs de Mars (an +unlettered proof of which commands no less than two pounds), is very +desirable. The little bill in colours bearing the legend, + + "Ainsi qu'un papillon volage, + + A qui passe aujourd'hui, demain sera passe. + + Laisse-toi cuellir au passage + + Papillon d'Actualite," + +[Illustration: 0100] + +[Illustration: 0102] + +[Illustration: 0104] + +[Illustration: 0106] + +[Illustration: 0108] + +is pretty, alike in colour and pattern, and has already become rare. + +Entirely appropriate to its purpose is the "Nouveau Cirque" +advertisement, in which clowns, bare-back riders, and performing animals +of all kinds-from a frog to an elephant-disport themselves with the +utmost _abandon_. From this to the "Cacao Van Houten," is a far cry. +From the point of view of the advertiser, Willette has done nothing +better than his life-size study of a Dutch waitress in national costume. +The thing is very decorative, and succeeds admirably in attracting +attention: another and more complicated design for the same firm is only +a shade less successful. This is entitled "La loi defendent le cacao +contre le chocolat." The other posters of this artist include the rare +"Petite National," the "Evenement Parisien" (which was, I believe, +suppressed), the "Courrier Francaise," the "Exposition Charlet," and the +"Elysee Montmartre." The posters of Willette are marked by variety and +ingenuity of invention, and there is little doubt that they will be +of permanent value as revelations of a talent as individual as it is +powerful. + +If the artistic poster is an unimportant incident in the career of +Willette, it is still more so in that of Forain, whose essays in this +direction have been few and far between. Forain is known to nearly every +artist in Europe as a great master of black and white. + +Few, if any, can approach him in technical dexterity, few can express +so much in so few lines. Moreover, to his technical mastery is added a +searching power of criticism which gives to his work a further, and a +most important, interest. In his desire to depict the truth, the whole +truth, and nothing but the truth, he (no doubt unconsciously) becomes a +moralist. He depicts life from no sentimental point of view; he can be +realistic without seeming to appreciate the tragedy which is of the very +essence of realism, so that on seeing one of his illustrations of modern +life, one receives, apart from technical delight, a distinctly literary +impression. Of his posters, perhaps the earliest is one unsigned and +without lettering, representing an illuminated garden, in which a woman +is depicted in the midst of an explosion of fireworks. Subsequent to +this comes a bill to advertise one of the novels of Dubut de Laforest, +which bears the artist's signature. The design which announces Forain's +political drawings for the "Figaro" is of slight importance, as it was +not originally intended for a poster. In spite of this it is by no means +easy to meet with. Of greater interest is the "Exposition des Arts de +la Femme." It was, however, only when Forain received a commission to +produce an illustrated advertisement for a cycle show that he achieved a +really memorable poster, a poster of real charm and rare + +[Illustration: 0112] + +[Illustration: 0114] + +originality. The sport of bicycling seems to have fascinated the +_Parisienne_ completely, and Forain has made a charming design, in which +she is depicted in complete enjoyment of the fashionable pastime. The +colour scheme is restrained and delicate, and the production, which +exists in two sizes, should certainly be found amongst the treasures of +every amateur of the _affiche_. + +The somewhat risky pages of the _Gil Bias Illustre_ have for a +considerable time been noticeable to artists, chiefly on account of a +series of coloured illustrations by Steinlen. His relentless veracity in +depicting the life of the lower classes of the Paris of to-day is almost +without rival. No detail of squalor seems to escape him; without a tinge +of remorse he proceeds to inform us of the meanest incidents in the +tragedy of the poor or vicious quarters of the great city. By reason of +a certain emphasis of colour and crudeness of design the art of Steinlen +is admirably adapted to the production of such human documents. But +it cannot be maintained that, whatever their technical merits, these +studies of human misery are other than unpleasant-even painful. It is, +therefore, altogether agreeable, when one turns to his essays in the +art of the poster, to find his work graceful rather than tragic, urbane +rather than mordant. Forsaking his mission of realistic illustration, he +becomes gay, dainty, and fanciful as the best of his fellows. Even in a +higher degree than the majority of them, he makes his design appropriate +to the thing advertised. His decorations are spiced with a certain +actuality, and, in being so, insist more effectively on the particular +article the merits of which it is their business to proclaim. No better +example of this could, I think, be put forward than the "Lait pur de +la Vingeannesterilise," a design which, in view of the material to be +advertised, is conceived in the happiest vein. The pretty little girl +drinking the milk, so much coveted of the cats which surround her, is +less interesting than the animals themselves. The draughtsmanship of +the latter is excellent, while there is a hint of that humanity of +expression about the creatures which has produced for the work of +Landseer so immense a popularity. Not less admirable, and of still +greater interest, is the poster designed to advertise the performances +of Yvette Guilbert at the Ambassadeurs. Amongst the numerous artists to +whom the Sarah Bernharct of the music-halls has given commissions none +has been more successful than Steinlen. The poster represents the singer +behind the footlights in an attitude pre-eminently characteristic. The +thing does not amount to a caricature, as does the hitherto unpublished +delineation of Toulouse-Lautrec, but is merely a slightly exaggerated +portrait. It is remarkably suggestive of a most alluring and delightful + +[Illustration: 0118] + +[Illustration: 0120] + +personality. As an advertisement, it must be confessed, it is not all +that could be desired. The colour scheme, while very dainty, is not one +which insists on its presence on the hoardings, so that the proximity +of (for example) a Cheret renders it to some extent ineffective. At +the same time, it is one of the most charming designs of the kind in +existence, and no collector should fail to possess himself of a copy. It +exists in three states: proofs before letters pulled in two tints only, +ordinary proofs before letters, and prints after letters. In the former +state it is rapidly increasing in value, but, insomuch as the lettering +is of the essence of the design, the final state is the most desirable +of all. To advertise an exhibition of his own work, Steinlen produced +another study of cats, which is almost as agreeable as the "Lait pur." +It is in two states: proofs before and after letters. The artist's +design for the watering-place, Vernet-les-Bains, is not very important, +but his early "Mothu et Doria," in three states, should not be +overlooked. Earlier in date than any of the designs I have discussed +is the "Trouville" and "Le Reve." The latter is a pretty composition +reproduced in chromotypo-gravure. While the posters of Steinlen are not +so striking on the hoarding as those of some of his contemporaries, they +are of the highest artistic interest, and will no doubt take a place +second to none in the affections of many collectors. It is significant +that already the rarest of them are by no means easy to procure. + +The art of Ibels is as little comprised in the poster as that of +Steinlen. It is happily characteristic of young artists of the present +day, both here and in France, that painting is not the only god of their +aesthetic adoration: + +they experiment in many mediums, and it is really remarkable in how +great a number of such experiments they succeed. What is generally true, +is especially so of H. G. Ibels. Like Grasset, he has held an exhibition +of his pictures at the Salon des Cent; he has made his mark in the +galleries of the Champs de Mars; he has designed the covers of several +pieces of music, and of a volume of poems by his brother, entitled +"Chansons Colorees"; in addition, he is well-known as a book +illustrator. His point of view is somewhat akin to that of +Toulouse-Lautrec: he is passionately interested in his own moment, and +depicts modern life with similar insistence on its ugly and grotesque +aspects. And yet Ibels rarely fails to be decorative, and his style is +the outcome of his own artistic personality, rather than the result of +study of the work of other men. In his posters he has been conspicuously +successful; so much so, that it is difficult to point to a single +failure, though, it must be remembered, that as yet his productions have +not been very numerous. It is possible + +[Illustration: 0124] + +[Illustration: 0126] + +that with some the "Mevisto a l'Horloge" will be deemed his best design, +but it can in no sense be considered his most original. It represents +the actor as Pierrot, and is graceful and pleasing rather than +characteristic; indeed, one would almost think that in designing it the +artist had been at pains to conceal his personality. Nor is the "Salon +des Cent"-a charming and delicate little lithograph-in spite of +the ingenuity and fantasy of its grouping of Pierrot, Harlequin and +Columbine, the most noteworthy of Ibels' posters. We see him at his +most original, in an advertisement for the illustrated paper entitled +"l'Escar-mouche," to which he, together with Lautrec, Vuillard, +Willette, and Anquetin, contributed drawings. It represents a cafe of +the lower class, such as abounds in the workmen's quarter of Paris. +The enormously fat _patron_ enthroned behind the metal-topped bar, the +waitress, cloth in hand, clad in her slovenly dress, the _ouvriers_ in +typical blue blouses, are studies in which accurate portraiture has been +but slightly sacrificed to grotesqueness. The whole scene is admirably +conceived, and the colour scheme, though very restrained, is certainly +telling. Those who can do so should secure a proof before letters of +this work, for the lettering is, I believe, not by the artist himself, +and mars the effect of the design, although not in a very marked degree. +Another interesting bill is that done for Mevisto's performances at the +Scala music-hall; this is of great size and striking originality. But if +grotesque force, and the power of reducing scenes of modern lower-class +life into decoration, are Ibels' most pronounced characteristics, he +can produce posters of the suavest charm. Amongst all the _affiches_ I +know, none seems to me more delightful than this artist's "Irene Henry." +The _cafe chantant_ singer whom it represents is justly a popular +favourite with the Parisian public from the fact that she infuses into +her performances no small amount of personality; moreover, her art is +marked by grace and finish. Those who would see her as she appears to +audiences at the Horloge, without going there, have only to look at +Ibels' poster. With the rarest felicity, he has caught her physical +individuality. She is represented in the act of singing in the open air +to a crowd in the _cafe_, lighted by the familiar circle of white lamps. +The line of the figure is most expressive: violet is the predominating +colour. This poster is worthy a place in the French music hall series, +which includes those designed by Lautrec for Jane Avril, by Steinlen +for Yvette Guilbert, and by an artist whom I am about to consider, +Anque-tin, for Marguerite Dufay. + +So far as I know, Anquetin has only produced two _affiches_ of +importance, but each + +[Illustration: 0130] + +[Illustration: 0132] + +of them is worthy of the closest attention. The design for Marguerite +Dufay is a piece of triumphant vulgarity. The subject is a very simple +one; it is merely a woman of almost impossible fatness who performs at +various Parisian music-halls on the trombone. Having stated this, one +has, however, given no idea of the extraordinary qualities of this bill. +It is safe to say that, once seen, it will never be forgotten; it should +have made the fortune of the performer whom it advertises. The mirth +of the thing is victorious and infectious; one seems almost to hear the +coarse laugh; the ample body in the green dress seems to move as one +stares at it. In line, in movement, this poster is, from a certain point +of view, a veritable masterpiece. An advertisement which is, it seems +to me, altogether more worthy of Anquetin's great talent is one designed +for "Le Rire," a recently issued journal. It is an extremely fine +lithograph in a single printing, and, as at present it can be procured +for a few shillings, it should be in the possession, not only of those +who care for posters as such, but also of all who are amateurs of the +beautiful art of lithography. In the foreground is the figure of a huge +man in mediaeval costume, which, while touched with the grotesque, is +splendidly flamboyant At his side he carries a large portfolio, adorned +with a grinning mask, while his hands, which are admirably drawn, point +towards a crowd of grinning pigmies beneath him. Every one of the crowd +is extremely expressive, and the effect of the whole production is +enhanced by very excellent lettering. It would be difficult to meet +with two _affiches_ more interesting than the "Marguerite Dufay" and +"Le Rire," and they place Anquetin amongst the masters of the art of the +poster. + +If Anquetin is an artist of marked originality, so, in a manner totally +different, is Pierre Bonnard. Save in the small number of his posters, +he resembles Anquetin in hardly anything; on the other hand, his work +has points of similarity with the later work of Lautrec. The posters of +both these artists are decorative in a curious and somewhat similar sort +of way, decorative in spite of their marked grotesqueness. Between the +"Confetti" of Lautrec and the "Revue Blanche" of Bonnard there is a +distinct decorative affinity. As both of them are dated the same year, +1894, it is needless to suggest that either of these intensely personal +artists has derived anything from the other; there is, indeed, no +evidence whatsoever of imitation, or even influence. Of the two +best-known posters of Bonnard, the "France Champagne" is the earlier +in point of time, having been published in 1891. It is a lithograph +in three colours, and represents an extraordinarily fantastic, and +extremely _decolletee_ girl, who holds in one hand a + +[Illustration: 0136] + +[Illustration: 0138] + +[Illustration: 0140] + +[Illustration: 0142] + +closed fan, and in the other an overflowing glass of champagne, which +tumbles about her in a great cascade of foam. The background is yellow +and the girl's dress red, while the upper part of the design is occupied +by the arms of Paris and the text in large letters. The draughtsmanship +is curious and vivacious, and the colouring conspicuously successful. +This poster is not large, measuring as it does, only thirty-two by +twenty-nine inches. The "Revue Blanche," though of nearly the same size, +is much more complicated. In the foreground is a woman in huge hat +and cape, which partly conceal her face, at whom an extraordinarily +grotesque street urchin points his finger. The background is composed of +innumerable advertisements of the _revue_, which a man in a great coat +and silk hat, with his back to the spectator, is reading attentively. +All the figures are in a sort of slate colour. The legend is admirably +introduced into the foreground by means of huge white letters. Owing to +the curiosity of its decoration, this specimen of Bonnard's work is a +most desirable possession for the collector. + +It has been the good fortune of Valloton to produce at least one poster +which is excellent from every point of view. Nothing more appropriate to +the advertisement of a frivolous burlesque than his "Ah! la Pe. la Pe, +la pepiniere" could well be imagined. It represents a characteristic +audience at a + +[Illustration: 0146] + +[Illustration: 0148] + +[Illustration: 0150] + +[Illustration: 0153] + +theatre convulsed with laughter at what is taking place on the stage. +The variety of expression on the faces of the spectators is infinite, +and the effect of the whole thing is as mirthful as may be. From the +advertiser's point of view, I can conceive nothing more completely +satisfactory. It exists in colours and in black, and the latter is the +rarer. The same artist's "Carte de Paris" would seem already to have +become scarce. It is a large lithograph in one colour; an example was +shown at the Poster Exhibition at the Royal Aquarium. There is also a +large address card designed by Valloton for M. Sagot. While this is not +actually a poster it almost amounts to one, and were it to be executed +on a large scale, it would doubtless be most successful. It is to be +hoped that Valloton, encouraged by his universally recognized success +in the art of the poster, will not altogether give up its practice in +favour of those other branches of art in which he is distinguished. + +The style of De Feure, if not so well adapted to poster work as that of +some of his contemporaries, is nevertheless very interesting. His most +characteristic effort is, perhaps, the "Salon des Cent, 5e Exposition." +This design is very modern and very fantastic. It exists in three +states--proofs before letters on vellum, proofs on Japanese paper, and +ordinary prints. The proofs before letters command very good prices. +Amongst the other posters of De Feure is that done for the performance +of the singer, Edmee Lescaut, at the Casino de Paris; for the newspaper +"Le Diablotin"; and for the "Paris Almanach." In addition, we must not +overlook the pleasant little design for the contents bill of a special +issue of "To-Day." + +The posters of Lucien Metivetare of very unequal merit. On the one +hand the designs done by him for Eugenie Buffet, in her realistic +_repertoire_ of songs, are extremely distinguished. While, on the other, +I could point to examples by this artist which are utterly unworthy +his talent. Amongst Metivet's earlier works are "La Famille, journal +hebdomadaire illustre," and "L'Hygiene." A more recent bill advertises +"Les Joyeuses commeres de Paris," but Metivet's talent is seen at its +best in the Eugenie Buffet advertisements, two studies worthy a place +amongst the best posters which have come from the hands of contemporary +French artists. + + + + +CHAPTER V.--IN FRANCE: THE WORK OF GUILLAUME, PALEOLOGUE, CHOU-BRAC + +BOUTET DE MONVEL, AMAN-JEAN, SCHWAEBE, SINET, JOSSOT, MAYET, AND OTHERS + + +|Prominent among the French designers of posters with whom I have not +previously dealt is Guillaume, an artist widely known in England by +reason of the admirable illustrations which, from time to time, appear +in our periodicals. Save Cheret and Choubrac, few artists have done so +much poster work as Guillaume, and not many have maintained so high a +level of accomplishment. Vigour, vivacity, and high spirits, rather than +beautiful design and fine colour, are the characteristic qualities of +posters by Guillaume. He is, it seems to me, seen at his best in the +admirable "Extrait de Viande Armour," which is reproduced here. In its +way, and looking to the thing to be advertised, nothing better has been +done. The gigantic "strong man," with his huge torso, colossal arms +and legs, holding a tiny teacup in his immense hands, is not easily +forgotten. The expression on the man's face is inimitable, and the +accessories, such as cannons and dumbbells, are most appropriately +chosen. The "Chapeaux l'elion" is a more complicated design, +representing a crowd of men wearing hats of every conceivable shape. +The colour of this design is very good, but its chief merit lies in the +facial expression of the different members of the crowd. It would be +impossible to conceive any single person in a hat other than the one +he is wearing. In another excellent poster we are presented with a +very _fin-de-siecle_ young lady riding astride a stork which bears her +rapidly through space. It would be hopeless to attempt anything like a +complete list of Guillaume's posters, but among the most recent are +the following, all of which deserve the attention of the collector: +"Dentifrices du Dr. Bonn," "Gigolette," "Old England," "Le Pole +Nord," "Cycles Vincent fils," "Le Vin d'Or" (in two sizes, unsigned), +"Parfumerie Diaphane; le Diaphane Sarah Bernhardt," "L'ouvre de Rabelais +par J. Gamier," and "Ducreux et Giralduc (Ambassadeurs)". + +Although a Frenchman, the work of Jean de Paleologue, or "Pal," as he is +more frequently called, is perhaps better known to the Londoner than to +the Parisian. His + +[Illustration: 0159] + +[Illustration: 0161] + +[Illustration: 0163] + +[Illustration: 0165] + +bright and flippant posters can be seen any day on the London hoardings, +and I have, therefore, purposely selected for reproduction two examples +in his less usual manner. The "Lucile Wraim" is of an elegance to which +Paleologue does not often attain, and would be distinguished in almost +any collection of posters. "The Euskal Jai Parisien," besides being a +good advertisement, is curious on account of its subject. Collectors who +would possess a more typical example of Paleologue's work would be well +advised to secure one or more of his music-hall series or his "Cabourg," +an advertisement for the watering-place of that name. It is a large +lithograph in five colours, and represents a very charming lady who, +while bathing, is bent upon displaying her charms to the utmost. +While Paleologue can in no sense be compared to Cheret in his gift of +diffusing joyousness and gaiety, his work is undoubtedly "chic," and +rarely fails in its first business of advertisement. Some of his posters +have become difficult to procure, notably one designed for a Drury Lane +pantomime some few years since. + +No artist, save Jules Cheret, has been more indefatigable in the making +of posters than Choubrac. The list given in M. Maindron's book is a +long one; that given in the catalogues of M. Sagot is still longer. The +posters of Choubrac do not seem to have received so much attention +at the hands of collectors as those of some of his better-known +contemporaries. At the same time, not a few of them are interesting and +rare. The bill done for the "Fin de Siecle" was suppressed, and, as +a consequence, is in great demand. It exists in four states, three of +which, in good condition, command no less than fifty francs. Merely to +give the names of the music-halls and theatres for which Choubrac has +worked would take up the better part of a page, while a list of the +_artistes_ whom he has advertised would be still longer. Amongst the +most noticeable of his recent bills are the following: "Eldorado. +Y'a pas d'erreur," "Folies Bergere. Armand Ary," "Folies Bergere. +Programme," "Folies Dramatiques. Miss Robinson," "Moulin Rouge. Au +Joyeux," "Neuilly-sur-Seine. Fete des fleurs," and "Gaiete. Rosa et +Josepha" (in two states). + +An artist more unlike Choubrac than Maurice Boutet de Monvel it would +be assuredly impossible to find, and the fact that these names are in +juxtaposition must be taken as proof that no systematic arrangement +has been attempted in this chapter. Boutet de Monvel is a painter of +European reputation. His fame as an illustrator for, and a delineator +of, children stands very high. His studies of child-life are unlike those +of any other artist. They display the keenest observation and, as Mr. +Pennell has rightly observed, one finds in them not a line without + +[Illustration: 0169] + +[Illustration: 0171] + +meaning. Boutet de Monvel has, I believe, produced only three posters. +Two of them are among the most charming things seen on the Paris +hoardings for + +[Illustration: 0173] + +many a long day. Both of these are comparatively small. That which is +earlier in date, "Petite Poucette," was originally designed as a cover +for a piece of music, but, when reproduced on a larger scale, was +found to be thoroughly effective as a poster. More dainty, if not more +characteristic of the art of Boutet de Monvel, is the "Pate Dentifrice +du Dr. Pierre." In this design, one of the prettiest and most delightful +little ladies in the whole Monvel gallery of pretty little ladies +insists on the merit of the tooth-paste which, if it be half as good as +she is charming, must be excellent indeed. Every artist knows his own +business best, but one can only hope that, in what leisure he can snatch +from his work in paint and illustration, Boutet de Monvel will place +the collector of posters under new obligations to him. His note as a +decorator of the hoardings is as distinct as it is agreeable. + +A very interesting figure in modern design is undoubtedly Carloz +Schwaebe. One of the leading lights of that curious institution the +"Salon Rose + Croix," it would indeed be curious if Schwaebe did anything +commonplace. His posters are as remarkable as those other productions +with which he has delighted some and puzzled not a few. Mystic, slightly +archaic, they are the work of a man of poetical temperament who +has chosen the graphic arts instead of literature as his means of +expression. The two posters from his hand are very decorative in their +strange way, and contain passages of great beauty. In the + +[Illustration: 0175] + +[Illustration: 0177] + +kneeling woman is remarkably impressive, while the irises amidst which +she kneels are beautifully drawn. The lettering of this poster is most +original, and the designer has evidently taken great pains with it. It +is a lithograph in two colours, and measures forty-two and a half by +thirty-one and a half inches. Schwaebe's larger poster, the "Salon Rose + +Croix," is in one colour only, and is a good example of his work. So +far this curiously-gifted artist has confined himself to advertising a +concert and a picture show; it is not to be expected that he will ever +condescend to soap or extract of beef. Another of the Rose + Croix men, +Aman-Jean, has done a poster for the Salon which rivals in curiosity the +productions of Schwaebe himself. + +A little advertisement which had, it may well be, some influence on the +poster movement in England, was that by which Andre Sinet advertised an +exhibition of his own works held at the Goupil Gallery in 1893. This +was an attractive little bit of design of which the colour was very +agreeable. In addition to it, Sinet has done the inevitable poster for +Yvette Guilbert. Another painter of talent who has made an advertisement +for an exhibition of his own work is H. Guerard. It represents a group +of ravens and is in poker work. It would appear to be rare, as it is +quoted in none of the catalogues. A copy, exhibited at the Aquarium in +1894, is in the collection of Mr. Ernest Hart. Still another artist who + +[Illustration: 0179] + +[Illustration: 0181] + +[Illustration: 0183] + +[Illustration: 0185] + +has, I believe, done only one poster, is Goissaud. His design was to +advertise the "Societe des miniaturistes et enlumineurs de France," and +is a lithograph in one colour. Among the Salon des Cent series we have, +besides the admirable posters of Grasset and Ibels already alluded to, +a very grotesque and effective little design by Jossot. It represents an +amazing old gentleman of weird aspect, in cocked hat, paying his franc +for admission to the exhibition. Of its kind it is effective enough. +Another, by Cazoly, with a curious portrait of Paul Verlaine is +reproduced here. + +It is certainly with no view to hurt the feelings of those artists whose +names do not head this chapter that they are represented by a mere +_et cetera_. It must be understood that one of the least polite of +contractions, in this case, involves no discourtesy whatsoever. + +For example, I may instance such able work as Gruen's "Le Carillon: +cabaret artistique." Few posters are more vivid or more actual than +this. The price of it is a matter of pence, and it should certainly not +be neglected by those whom it amuses to collect the _affiche illustre_. +Gruen, in addition to "Le Carillon," has produced "Poleon-Revue: +Decadent's Concert," and in addition a design for an insurance company. +One of the most charming of the more recent French posters is one by H. +Gray, dealing with "La Pretentaine," a play produced some time ago at +the Nouveau Theatre. In addition he has advertised "La Bonita" at +the Cirque d'Ete, "Les Mousquetaires," at the same place, "Les +Saltimbanques" at the Cirque d'Hiver, and the _bal masque_ at +the Theatre de l'Opera. The last is perhaps the best known of his +_affiches_. Among others, Bac has done a poster for Yvette Guilbert at +the Horloge, which is signed and dated 1892. The bicycling craze has +called into existence a perfect torrent of posters, and Bac, together +with Gray, Guillaume, Lunel, and Paleologue, have produced posters of +more or less interest. A gentleman who is sufficiently modest not +to state his name, did a design which called forth the wrath of the +authorities. Whereupon an artist called Lepur designed an _affiche_ +bearing the significant legend, of which this is a translation: "Grand +choice of vine-leaves (fig-leaves) of all sizes for posters, as demanded +by the virtuous journals, the 'T(emps '), the 'G(aulois '), and the +'D(ebats ')." + +The following is a list, with the names of typical examples of their +work, of some other French artists of distinction who have designed +posters: Barbizet ("La branche cassee"), Bouisset (F.) ("Bazar de +l'Hotel-de-Ville," "Exposition de jouets," "Chocolat Menier"), +Desicy (H.) ("Un heritage, roman"), Dutriac ("Ambassadeurs: Danseuses +Espagnols"), Faria ("Ba-ta-clan: [Illustration: 0189] Paulus"), Dufay +("Portrait,") ("Les Rey Nol's)," Galice (G.) ("Concert parisien: Esther +Lekain," "Fete des Fleurs," "Paulan Brebion," "Scala: Jeanne Bloch"), +Guydo ("Eldorado: Aimee Eymard"), Honer ("Concert parisien: Bonnaire"), +Hope ("Gaiete: Tour de Nesle"), Huvey ("Gras-side"), Lamy (L.) ("Le +capitaine Henriot, opera comique," "Theatre national lyrique"), Lebegue +(L.) ("Bals travestes et tableaux vivants"), Lefevre (L.) ("Cacao +lacte," "Electricine," "L'hiver a Nice"), Levy (E.) ("Chatelet Michel +Strogoff," "Cirque d'Hiver: Caravane dans le desert," "Folies Bergere: +Vue de la salle," "Petit national: Le prince Mouffetard"), Meunier (G.) +("Papier a cigarettes Job," "Parfumerie Edea," "Le Sahara a Paris: Champ +de Mars"), Truchet (A.) ("Cabaret des Quat'z' Arts," "Eldorado: Alice +Berthier.") + +It will have been noticed already how great apart the music-hall and +the _cafe chantant_ play in the history of the pictorial poster. +Yvette Guilbert has been the cause of a baker's dozen of _affiches_; +Anna Thibaud (that charming singer of the songs of Beranger); Anna Held, +with her curious manner, and still more curious appearance; Irene Henri, +of intense personality; Jane Avril, and May Belfort; to say nothing of +Aristide Bruant, of Caudieux, of Paulus, and the rest of the school who +have made the music-hall stage of France a matter of no small importance + +[Illustration: 0191] + +in her social life, have been favourite subjects of the designers +of posters. It has always been held that the career of an actor, in +consideration of its evanescence, is not + +[Illustration: 0193] + +without a certain pathos. It is true that we remember, through the +gossip of their friends, Garrick and Mrs. Siddons, Talma and Rachel, but +even these are uncertain phantoms lingering in the haze of memory. Only +yesterday they were intensely actual, to-day they are not more real than +Burbage and Betterton. After all, the history of the actor's art is not +without its immortals. Macaulay's schoolboy could doubtless have related +the compliment of Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Siddons: the latest escapade of +the great Sarah is the joy of the paragrapher. The music-hall, however, +has still no artist in any country (save, perhaps, the unforgettable +Yvette) who has much chance of permanent remembrance. But when the toil +and moil of existence is ended, when the singer has sung his last song, +it may chance that he will be remembered because some collector of such +unconsidered trifles as picture posters has placed in his portfolio a +work of Cheret or of Lautrec. + +To turn from the music-halls to the great railway companies is an +emphatic transition, and yet the former, no less than the latter have +done much to encourage the artist to apply his talent to the _affiche_. +The Great Western Railway Company have illustrated at their stations and +in their carriages, by means of photography, all that is romantic and +interesting in the country through which their line runs. And, again, +the great lines of the United States have brought into vogue vast +systems of pictorial advertisement. Their opportunity was undoubtedly a +magnificent one. For subject + +[Illustration: 0195] + +[Illustration: 0197] + +matter they had some of those vast natural developments which appeal to +mere man as absolutely terrific. The waterfall, splashing itself into +luminous dust, the immense and silent mountains, the lakes which are +seas, the vasty canons which occur in different parts of the States, +inevitably appeal to the imagination. It is therefore not wonderful that +the great lines of America have preferred literal and exact illustration +to fantastic delineation. The railways of France, on the other hand, +have employed to no inconsiderable extent the artist to figure the +beauties of the places at which they have stations. Amongst the most +important French designers who have worked at the railway _affiche_ +are:-Fraipont (G.): ("Chemin de fer de l'Etat: Bains de mer de Royan": +"Royan sur l'Ocean," "Chemin de fer d'Orleans: Excursions en Tou-raine": +"Excursions en Touraine et aux chateaux des bords de la Loire," "Chemin +de fer de l'Ouest: Argenteuil a Mantes," "Cie de l'Ouest et de Brighton: +Fleurs, fruits, primeurs a destination de Londres," "Paris a Londres +(L'Angleterre et l'Ecosse)" "Chemin de fer du Nord: Excursions a la +mer," "Chemin de fer de l'Est: Royat," "Chemin de fer de l'Ouest: +Bretagne, Normandie," "Normandie et Bretagne," "Chemin de fer de l'Ouest +a Brighton: Paris a Londres," "Chemin de fer du Nord: Anvers, Exposition +universelle.") Ochoa: ("Club Train," "Mediterranee," "Express (Cie Int. +des wagons-lits)," "Orient-Express," "Peninsular-Express"). Hugo d'Alesi +(_affiches_ simili-aquarelles): "Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Algerie," +"Geneve," "L'hiver a Nice," (two subjects), "Lac de Thoune," +"Mont Revard," "Le Mont Rose," "Le Puy," "Tunisie," "La Turbie," +"Uriage-les-Bains," "Chemin de fer du Midi: Pyrenees," "Chemin de fer +d'Orleans: Excursions en Auvergne" (1894), "La Creuse et l'Indre," +"Chemin de fer de l'Ouest: Dieppe," "L'Auvergne (Orleans)." Lefevre +(L.): "Nord. Ete a Cobourg," "Orleans Excursions aux Pyrenees," "Bains +de mer du Golfe de Gascogne," "Ouest Excursions sur les cotes de +Normandie, en Bretagne, et a l'ile de Jersey." Among other designers for +French railway companies and watering-places may be named Orazi, whose +"Trouville" poster is reproduced on p. 181, Balzer, Baylac, Japhet, and +Oge. + +[Illustration: 0201] + +[Illustration: 0203] + + + + +CHAPTER VI.--IN ENGLAND: FROM FRED WALKER TO DUDLEY HARDY + +|While the pictorial poster undoubtedly existed in England previous to +the production of Fred Walker's "Woman in White," its artistic qualities +were conspicuous by their absence. No body of artists who designed +posters, such as that of which Ga-varni was one in France, is to be met +with in the history of English art until the present day. While, as Mr. +Spielmann reminds us in a recent magazine article, Mr. Godfroy Durand +and Mr. Walter Crane had both attempted the artistic _affiche_ previous +to Walker, the efforts of neither made a pronounced impression, nor were +they productive of permanent results. The work of the first of these +three artists announced the appearance of the then newly-founded +"Graphic," and that of Mr. Walter Crane proclaimed the merits of a brand +of lead pencils. It is interesting, as an example of Mr. Crane's immense +versatility in decorative design, that he should be among the pioneers +of the poster movement in this country. That his early effort was +overshadowed by Walker's very imposing work is not a matter of surprise. +From the first, Walker appears to have been deeply impressed by the +possibilities of the hoardings as a free art gallery. To use his own +words, as quoted by Mr. Spielmann: "I am impressed on doing all I +can with a first attempt at what I consider might develop into a most +important branch of art." How Walker's view has been realized the mere +existence of this book is sufficient to prove. This design, which +was done to advertise Wilkie Collins's novel, "The Woman in White," +represents a magnificently-draped female figure stepping through a door +out into the night. With one hand she opens the door, with the other +she imposes silence on some person unseen. This was cut on wood by W. H. +Hooper, who also engraved the small block we are permitted to reproduce +here from "The Magazine of Art." The design is in black and white, and +has the limitations from the advertising point of view of black and +white work; but, apart from this, it is in every way a work which +could not fail to impress the passer-by. "The Woman in White" is, +unfortunately, Walker's sole essay in the art of the poster; on the +other hand, Mr. Walter Crane has produced a series which, we may hope, +has yet to close. It would seem that over ten years elapsed between his +first and second attempts in the art of the poster. We meet with him for +the second time in a design in blue and yellow + +[Illustration: 0207] + +which advertised the Covent Garden Promenade Concerts given in 1880. +This has become extremely rare, and the artist himself does not, I +believe, possess a copy. Following the Covent Garden bill was one +announcing the performances in London of the Paris Hippodrome Troupe. +This is merely an enlargement on a vast scale of a classical drawing +intended to adorn a book describing the show, but it is distinctly +interesting, more so, it seems to me, than the pretty little coloured +thing-a window-bill, rather than a poster-which advertises Hau's +champagnes. Other posters by Mr. Crane deal with an exhibition of +his own works, with various insurance companies, with the "English +Illustrated Magazine" (an enlarged version of the cover), and the +exhibitions of the Arts and Crafts Society. It will be seen that Mr. +Crane's contribution to the art of the poster is a very substantial one, +and if his designs do not always fulfil the sweet uses of advertisement, +they are generally marked by fine taste. It is a matter of common +knowledge that Professor Herkomer has left hardly any art or craft +untouched, and it therefore goes without saying that he has left some +of them unadorned. To succeed as painter, etcher, carver, musician, poet +and playwright, lecturer, and actor is not given to mere man. Professor +Herkomer's posters cannot, I think, be considered among his more +fortunate performances. That done for "The Magazine of Art" does not +lack a certain feeling for composition: the weird + +[Illustration: 0209] + +[Illustration: 0211] + +[Illustration: 0213] + +[Illustration: 0215] + +creature who told us that "Black and White" was coming seemed to me +to lack both dignity and grace, and, moreover, to possess very few +compensating qualities. Amongst other posters by Professor Herkomer +is one for his own exhibition, and one for an exhibition of pictures +recently held at Oxford. + +It should be noted that while most of the mural decorations of Mr. Crane +and Professor Herkomer are, strictly speaking, posters, in that they +were designed for the hoardings and for the hoardings alone, a great +many designs and pictures by eminent artists have been reproduced and +posted contrary to the original intention of their designers. The most +prominent of these is, of course, Sir John Millais' famous "Bubbles," +on the reproduction of which enormous sums have been spent. The thing is +pretty enough, but cannot compete as an advertisement with a really good +poster properly so called. Of course the name of Sir John Millais was +one to conjure with, and the success of the thing has been, doubtless, +great. But it is not an experiment one cares to see frequently repeated. +Messrs. Pears were more happily inspired in the commission which they +gave to Mr. Stacy Marks to produce a _bona fide_ poster. His "Monks +Shaving," seems to be most excellently conceived, and, indeed, to be the +most interesting of Messrs. Pears + +[Illustration: 0219] + +[Illustration: 0221] + +gallery of illustrated advertisements. Art has certainly played a very +prominent part in the battle of the soaps. Mr. G. D. Leslie used his +gifts to insist on the merits of the Sunlight brand, while Mr. Burton +Barber pleaded pictorially for the Lifebuoy brand. A curious bit of +poster-making was the reproduction of a random sketch of a girl sitting +on a champagne cork, by Mr. Linley Sambourne, which seems to meet us at +every turning. Again, Mr. Harry Furniss's man who had used Pears' +soap years back, "and since then had used no other," is an enlarged +reproduction used for advertising purposes of a drawing in "Punch." +On the other hand, the "Minerva," which Mr. Poynter designed for the +Guardian Assurance Company, was actually devised for the purpose of a +mural advertisement. It cannot be strictly called a poster, insomuch as +it is never seen in the open air unless glazed. It is a classical +design in several colours, and is of a very elaborate character. For the +purpose of exhibition indoors, it is glazed and mounted on linen with +rollers. Another contemporary English painter who has received very high +official recognition and has done a poster is Sir James Linton, P.R.I. +His subject was assuredly an attractive one, "Antony and Cleopatra," but +it can hardly be maintained that, for an artist of so great repute, he +has produced an especially memorable design. It is a lithograph in one +colour, and measures fifty by fifty-two inches. Its date is 1874, so it +is clear that Sir James Linton is among the little band who tried to do +something for the pictorial poster in + +England when it was held of no account. Mr. Charles Green, a member +of the institution of which Sir James is president, produced a rather +ingenious advertisement of an exhibition of works in black and white +held some time ago in Mosley Street. It + +[Illustration: 0223] + +[Illustration: 0226] + +is not very large, and is a lithograph in one colour. + +It will be observed that the artistic poster was in the air in England +not very long after it began to develop in France. It does not, however, +seem to have taken so great a hold on English artists or on the English +public as on the artists and public of France. In England the artistic +poster appears to have been received coldly or with indifference, +and doubtless many designers who would have been glad to turn their +attention to the poster were deterred therefrom by lack of public +sympathy. But all this has happily been changed, and if the number of +poster designers is to continue increasing at the present rate, the +difficulty will be, not to find the artistic advertiser, but to find +the thing to be advertised. A crowd of clever young men, actuated by the +success which met the efforts of the designers dealt with in the next +chapter, have rushed to the poster with results altogether important. + + + + +CHAPTER VII.--IN ENGLAND: THE WORK OF DUDLEY HARDY, AUBREY BEARDSLEY + +AND MAURICE GREIFFENHAGEN + +|The English artists of established reputation with whom I dealt in the +last chapter, were, as we saw, so anxious to inform their posters with +aesthetic qualities, that for the most part, they overlooked the obvious +fact that their work was vain unless it really fulfilled its primary +purpose of advertising. It was left for the three men (all of +comparatively recent reputation) whose names head this chapter, to give +the right direction; to insist that not art, but advertisement, was the +first essential. It is not for an instant to be pretended that their +achievement equals in importance that of the three designers discussed +in a corresponding chapter in the section of this book devoted to +France. Quantity of production, it is true, is a small matter in art; +and yet, in so far as quantity of production entails experience, one +is forced to take it into consideration. The success of a man who has +produced a hundred posters, or more, is scarcely to be expected of +a designer, however ingenious, who is only making his first attempt. +Moreover, to an artist accustomed to work on a small scale, it is a +matter of extreme difficulty to appreciate, and when in the throes of +production to keep in mind, the essentials of a design intended to +be seen at a considerable distance, in the open air. He is apt to +be tempted into pretty detail or subtle and harmonious colour, and +therefore to forget that he should be simple almost to the point of +crudeness. Under these circumstances, it is not less remarkable than it +is encouraging, that Mr. Hardy, Mr. Beardsley, and Mr. Greiffenhagen in +their earliest essays apprehended the situation at once, and produced +posters which inevitably caught the eye of the beholder and created an +impression which remained with him for a considerable time. Differing in +all else, the first designs of these three artists were alike, in that +they were admirable advertisements. From every hoarding in London, +from the walls of every station on the Underground Railway, one was +vehemently called upon to purchase a new weekly, or a new series of an +old one, or to visit the Avenue Theatre. If the call was resisted, it +was assuredly no fault of these artist-advertisers. To suggest that what +they have done would have been impossible, + +[Illustration: 0230] + +[Illustration: 0231] + +or at least improbable, if France had not paved the way, is scarcely +to discount their immediate and unequivocal success: even the greatest +artist is unwise if he does not condescend to make use of the work of +the past. + +It is, I think, Mr. Dudley Hardy who, of the three artists named, owes +most to France. He has made a variation, a very personal and alluring +variation, be it said, of a theme essentially Gallic in its unrestrained +gaiety, its reckless joyousness. There is something of Cheret, and there +is even more of Jan Van Beers, in the end-of-the-century girl, elegant +as she is impudent, whom Mr. Hardy depiets with such amazing verve and +abandon. She is too light-hearted, too irresponsible, to be a daughter +of this land of grey and rainy skies; she takes nothing seriously, save +perchance a detail of her costume. And yet she is stamped with Mr. +Hardy's personality as thoroughly as are the charming _Parisiennes_ of +Cheret with the individuality of their inventor. Mr. Hardy began, +and began wisely, by trusting for his effect to a single bold figure. +Elaborate composition implies detail, and detail is one of the pitfalls +of the designer of posters. Take, for example, the vast sheets which +were employed to advertise one of the spectacles at Olympia. The +overcrowding of small figures and closely-realized views either produced +no impression whatsoever on the spectator, or at the most an impression +due entirely to the immensity of the sheets. Mr. Hardy's series of +posters commenced most auspiciously with that audacious young lady in +a yellow dress, saucy hat, and flying black boa, who, not deigning to +entreat, compelled the passer-by to rush to the nearest bookstall for a +copy of Mr. Jerome's weekly "To-Day." Later, in similar vein, came +the dashing girl in red, used by the manager of the Prince of Wales's +Theatre to insist on the merits of "A Gaiety Girl." It may be doubted +whether any more effective mural advertisement has ever been seen in +London than that formed by half-a-dozen copies of this poster, arranged +in the manner of a frieze in front of the theatre during the run of the +piece. If the idea was that of the bill-sticker, the man was a genius +of his kind: I cannot help suspecting, however, that the striking +arrangement was due to Mr. Hardy himself. Or perhaps it was the happy +thought of an outsider. In addition to the large "Gaiety Girl" poster, +the two smaller bills which this artist designed to advertise the same +play, full as they were of dash and go, must not be overlooked. To the +collector they have a merit which he will not fail to appreciate. They +are of manageable size, and this is more than can be said of most of Mr. +Hardy's productions. It must not be thought, however, that + +[Illustration: 0234] + +Mr. Hardy can do no more than repeat with slight variety of detail the +_chic_ girl to whom he first introduced us; already, notwithstanding +the comparatively small number of his designs, he has shown a very +commendable versatility. The proprietors of "St. Paul's," in the days +when that journal regaled its readers on the portraits, not of dancing +girls, but of right reverend prelates, commissioned Mr. Hardy for a +large design appropriate to the semi-ecclesiastical character of their +journal. The choice, in view of the "Yellow Girl," was a somewhat +curious one; but the experiment justified itself. The artist rose to the +occasion; on the hoardings of London there appeared a woman of austere, +even saintly, demeanour, clad in sombre robes, and armed with a spike of +the Madonna lily. In spite of the low scheme of colour, the design +was very telling as an advertisement. It has become very rare; indeed, +notwithstanding the fad; that the dealers quote it at various prices in +their catalogues, it may be questioned whether it is to be procured at +all. When the policy of "St. Paul's" was changed--when it stepped down +from its shrine to join the multitude and be of the world, worldly--the +art of Mr. Hardy was once more called in to introduce the paper in +its new guise. For the first time, so far as I know, he attempted +composition. His idea was a happy one. The poster represented a young +lady, evidently light-hearted and of unquestionably fantastic costume, +see-sawing on a quarter of the moon with a gentleman of slight +intellect, but exceedingly smart clothes. Seen under certain conditions +the composition is distinctly effective, but from a long distance it +fails to assert itself as do Mr. Hardy's simpler designs. In his most +recent effort he has returned to the single figure, and he has done +nothing more striking than his bill for "The Chieftain," at the Savoy +Theatre, which represents a man in picturesque costume on a red ground. +The lettering of nearly all Mr. Hardy's posters is admirable. It is +invented by the artist himself, and forms an essential part of the +design. For the rest, it should be remembered that the poster is a mere +incident in Mr. Hardy's art career. As an illustrator he is with us +everywhere; as a painter he is held in deserved esteem. It is to be +hoped, for the sake of the artistic poster in England, that he will +continue to devote some of his time to a branch of art in which, in +comparatively a short time, he has so greatly succeeded. + +The art of Mr. Aubrey Beardsley has been so enthusiastically received, +on the one hand, as a new revelation, and so passionately condemned, on +the other, as the mere glorification of a hideous and putrescent aspect +of modern life, that it is difficult to consider his work with calmness. +One thing, however, is certain: an impression + +[Illustration: 0238] + +[Illustration: 0240] + +of some kind, whether agreeable or the reverse, it has undoubtedly left +upon all who have seen it. It cannot be dismissed by stating that it +is derivative rather than original; that to a large extent it is the +outcome of Japan, and in a less degree of the old English school of +caricaturists. Whether it be good or bad, the extraordinary impression +it has made cannot be gainsaid. It is probable that the work of no young +designer of recent times has called forth so much homage of imitation, +so great an amount of that kind of caricature which is among the +sincerest forms of flattery. Mr. Beardsley's eccentricities are so +pronounced, that to parody his work was simply to do the obvious. +From "Punch," august by reason of its fifty years of tradition, to the +poorest comic rag produced to catch the errand-boy's spare halfpenny, is +a far cry; and yet the former, no less than the latter, has treated +its readers to a series of pictorial Beardsleyisms. It would have been +wonderful, indeed, if Mr. Beardsley, who is nothing if not modern, had +not attempted the artistic poster. His opportunity came when the Avenue +Theatre was taken by an enthusiastic and courageous young actress for +the production of plays by living English writers, which, whatever +their fate from the commercial point of view, were at least to possess +definite merits as pieces of literature. In order to advertise Dr. +Todhunter's "Comedy of Sighs," and Mr. G. Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the +Man," Mr. Beardsley excelled himself, and designed perhaps the most +remarkable poster ever seen, up to that time, in London. + +Nothing so compelling, so irresistible, had ever been posted on the +hoardings of the metropolis before. Some gazed at it with awe, as if +it were the final achievement of modern art; others jeered at it as +a palpable piece of buffoonery: everybody, however, from the labourer +hurrying in the dim light of the morning to his work, to the prosperous +stockbroker on his way to the "House," was forced to stop and look at +it. Hence, it fulfilled its primary purpose to admiration; it was a +most excellent advertisement. The old theatrical poster represented, +in glaring colours, the hero in a supreme moment of exaltation, or the +heroine in the depths of despair. Mr. Beardsley did not condescend to +illustrate, but produced a design, irrelevant and tantalizing to the +average man, though doubtless full of significance to himself. In many +respects the Avenue bill must be considered the best poster which so far +has come from this artist's hands. The very graceful figure on a small +poster for "The Yellow Book" speaks for itself. It is more vivid, +more curious, than either of the two done for a London publisher. Most +collectors, however, will treasure even more highly + +[Illustration: 0244] + +[Illustration: 0245] + +[Illustration: 0246] + +the charming design done by Mr. Beardsley to advertise the Pseudonym +series of short stories. In it we meet with the artist in his less +mordant mood. The sketch of the old bookshop in the background is quite +delightful, and the whole design is less grotesque than most of Mr. +Beardsley's productions. The arrangement in purple and white, which +he did for the same firm, is a very striking performance in his later +manner. Its importance as a poster is, however, seriously discounted +by the fact that the design has nothing whatsoever to do with the text, +which has been added in a manner almost inconceivably clumsy. + +The success of Mr. Beardsley in the production of artistic posters has +encouraged a host of imitators, so that it is quite within the bounds +of possibility that he will found something in the nature of a school. +Already, on the other side of the Atlantic, more than one artist has +been inspired by him. The posters of Mr. Bradley, for example, with +which I shall deal later, are unquestionably adaptations, at once +skilful and intelligent, of Mr. Beardsley's decorative manner. Again, to +return to England, the pleasant arrangement in red and white, designed +by Mrs. Dearmer to advertise a recital recently given by her in London, +proves that she has been affected by the simplicity and directness which +are so conspicuous among the merits of Mr. Beardsley in his essays in +the art of the hoarding. Of his many parodists only one, I think, has +actually attempted the poster. The essay in question was made by Mr. +J. Hearn, under the signature of "Weirdsly Daubery," and the result +was very fantastic and amusing. The design was done for some amateur +theatricals at Oxford, and it was curious to + +[Illustration: 0248] + +[Illustration: 0250] + +meet this atom of the so-called decadence flaunting itself, with strange +incongruity, in every nook and corner of "the sweet city of the dreaming +spires." + +The case of Mr. Maurice Grieffenhagen is similar to that of Mr. Dudley +Hardy, insomuch as both have been well known for some time to the public +as painters and as the producers of very accomplished work in black and +white. At present Mr. Grieffenhagen, as a designer of posters, can only +be judged by a single production. It may be said at once that nothing +more distinguished, nothing which is less imitative or derivative, has +come from English hands than Mr. Grieffenhagen's advertisement for the +"Pall Mall Budget." Admirable alike in colour and in pattern, the poster +is entirely appropriate to its purpose of keeping before the eyes of the +public a publication which escaped frivolity on the one hand and dulness +on the other. All who watch the development of the artistic poster +in England with interest, cannot but hope that the "Pall Mall Budget" +poster will be the first of a series by the same artist equally +delightful and original. + +It is interesting to note that while we are still a long way behind +the French in the matter of the artistic poster, the productions of +the three artists with whom I have just dealt have received a cordial +welcome at the hands of Parisian collectors. In the dealers' shops you +may see Mr. Hardy's "Gaiety Girl" side by side with Lautrec's "Reine +de Joie," while Mr. Grieffenhagen's young lady in red looks with demure +surprise at the antics of her more frivolous sisters, as depicted by +Jules Cheret. There is, again, a steady demand for anything by Mr. +Beardsley, who, it would seem, has already become an established +favourite with French connoisseurs. As we shall see in another chapter, +the prices put in Paris upon English posters compare very favourably +with those at which the works of the ablest French designers are valued. +In matters of art, few cities are more insular and intolerant than the +French metropolis; and those English artists who are devoting themselves +to the poster, should be encouraged by enthusiastic recognition where +enthusiasm was least to be expected. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII.--THE WORK OF OTHER CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH DESIGNERS + +|Since this book was commenced as the companion, rather than the rival, +of that of M. Maindron, English designers of the poster have multiplied +in a degree altogether phenomenal. + +Up to the time in question, as we have already seen, the English +artist who attempted the poster was exceptional. The famine, which was +prevalent only a year or two ago, has become the abundance of today, so +that where one expected a dearth of subject matter, one has in fact an +excess. It seems to me that, apart from the English pioneers, whom we +have already considered, the brothers Beggarstaff, in reality Messrs. +Pryde and Simpson, two young artists, are entitled to the first +place among the makers of the English artistic poster. They have best +appreciated the essence of their business: less than almost any native +designers, they are innocent of any homage of imitation. They have +imitated neither Cheret nor Lautrec: it may well be that they have had +the wisdom to take a hint here and there from both of these masters of +the art of the _affiche_. As yet the hoardings of London are screaming +with the vulgar designs of the advertiser's hack. The admirable art of +the Beggarstaffs is, up to now, infrequently met with. Their curious +advertisement for Sir Henry Irving's production of "Becket," was +eclipsed by that done for the same manager's "Don Quixote," while the +latter has to give place to one intended to announce a special issue of +"Harper's Magazine." All of these force themselves on the collector's +attention. They are at once striking and artistic; they cry their wares +well, and they are a delight to the eyes. The lettering in the Harper +poster is beyond all praise. Of its kind, it is the most beautiful +English lettering of which I know. At the Aquarium Exhibition the +Beggarstaff's showed four posters which advertised Nobody's Blue, +Nobody's Candles, Nobody's Niggers, and Nobody's Pianos. If each +"Nobody" is not rapidly converted into "Somebody," the various +manufacturers and proprietors of the articles mentioned above must be +very stupid people. All were excellent; that which advertised Nobody's +Pianos was a most curious and a most original performance. It seems to +me that the Beggarstaffs have few serious rivals in England, and not +very many in France. Their works should help very + +[Illustration: 0256] + +considerably in the task of revolutionizing the English pictorial +poster. The + +[Illustration: 0258] + +impression created by their designs on Frenchmen, who are past masters +in the art of the hoarding, is most favourable. + +[Illustration: 8258] + +It will be remembered that when Mr. Sickert took it into his head to +depict the Sisters Lloyd in their music-hall habit, the critics fell +out greatly. Even the young ladies in question had, it is said, +scant affection for a design in which everything was suggested and +nothing declared. + +They had, it is true, the recompense of advertisement, and that, to a +music-hall singer, is a very sweet recompense. It was characteristic of +Mr. Sickert that he should go to the music-halls for a subject. The "New +English Art Club" is devoted to things which are + +[Illustration: 0259] + +new and strange, the artistic poster amongst them. Mr. Sickert is not +the only one of the members of this club who have made an essay in the +latest form of applied art. Mr. Beardsley, Mr. R. Anning Bell, and Mr. + +[Illustration: 0260] + +[Illustration: 0262] + +[Illustration: 0264] + +Wilson Steer are amongst those of his colleagues who have done the same +thing. Mr. Sickert's poster, which is, I believe, as yet unpublished, is +in four colours. It is calculated to make a good advertisement, and one +can only hope soon to meet with it on the hoardings. As an impressionist +painter of talent, Mr. Wilson Steer is as well known as Mr. Sickert. A +"New English Art Club" Exhibition without his work would be one which +lacked a most characteristic feature. Mr. Steer gave us an opportunity +of appreciating his talent as a painter by organizing a show of his +own work. To advertise this he did a poster, which was excellent of +its kind, and is in consequence very rare. It is a comparatively small +lithograph in four colours, and is quite unlike this artist's other +work. It leans, it seems to me, towards Pre-Raphaelitism rather than +towards Impressionism. An artist who has certainly sat at the feet of +Mr. Whistler is Mr. Mortimer Menpes. To advertise several exhibitions of +his paintings, he has invented at least three posters, which certainly +do not lack the merit of originality. He has abstained from the +frivolous girl and grotesque man. The "France," the "Venice," and the +"India" are in their way considerable achievements in dainty design and +quiet and harmonious colour. Mr. Menpes, by being intentionally simple, +has arrived at notable conspicuity. All this artist's designs are of +small size, and are appropriate rather to the notice board than to the +hoarding. Nothing more opposite to the fastidious productions of Mr. +Menpes could be conceived than the vigorous poster by Mr. Lockhart Bogle +advertising a Scottish Athletic Gathering, held in 1892. This is a large +lithograph, consisting of a single figure of a Highlander, which, if not +remarkably beautiful, is drawn with vigour and with no small accuracy. +Mr. Brangwyn is one of those English painters of whom we are entitled +to be proud. His directness, the audacity of his impressionism, the +splendour (if sometimes ill-considered) of his colour schemes, cannot +be passed over even by those who have slight sympathy with his method. +That, if so inclined, he would produce a poster at once startling and +artistic is not to be denied. The one which he has already designed to +advertise an exhibition of South African pictures by himself and Mr. +William Hunt, held at the Japanese Gallery, is certainly by no means +worthy his remarkable talent, and one trusts that he will cease for +a moment from painting pictures and produce a poster which shall be +memorable in the history of the _affiche_ in England. + +Mr. Frank Richards is nothing if not versatile; his exhibition, held +recently at the Dowdeswells' Galleries, came as a surprise to all who +were unacquainted with his + +[Illustration: 0268] + +[Illustration: 0269] + +[Illustration: 0270] + +clever painting. In this exhibition his pictures ranged from a large +study of Mr. Clive as "Hamlet" to slight but beautiful studies of Venice +under various atmospheric conditions. In his poster work, of which at +present little has been seen, Mr. Richards shows that, to some extent, +he is under the influence of Mr. Dudley Hardy. Mr. Richards, no less +than Mr. Hardy, is undeniably up to date, and his work is really +effective. Among the most recent additions to the ranks of our popular +illustrators is Mr. Lewis Baumer. One meets with his work everywhere; +in "To-Day" and in the shortlived "Unicorn." His bills to advertise the +Academy students' annual burlesque are pretty, if they are nothing else. +Mr. Baumer has certainly still to make his mark as a poster designer. +The Artistic Supply Company, who are paying special attention to the +pictorial poster, have already produced a dainty little _affiche_ by +him. It may be noted here that the company in question have arranged +with some of the most eminent English designers for the reproduction of +artistic posters, and that several, which illustrate these pages, do so +only on account of their permission most generously given. + +Among other services which the comic journal "Pick-Me-Up" has rendered +to the artistic public is the extremely important one of emphasizing, +and giving a congenial outlet to, the remarkable talent of Mr. + +[Illustration: 0272] + +[Illustration: 0274] + +Raven-Hill. From almost the first, his connexion with the journal in +question has been a very intimate one. Hardly a number is without a +specimen of his powerful drawing and his gift of comic invention. While +suggesting, in the best sense, the style of the incomparable Charles +Keene, Mr. Raven-Hill's work in black and white is the outcome of his +own personality. It would have been strange if this very modern artist +had not produced pictorial posters: his talent was perfectly adapted to +his doing so with success. His small bills for "Pick-Me-Up" are vigorous +in drawing, bold in colour, and of a pleasant fantasy. They only measure +twenty by thirty inches, but they are very telling. A complete set of +them is a most desirable addition to the collector's portfolio. Another +accomplished member of the staff of "Pick-Me-Up," Mr. Edgar Wilson, has +designed a bill for the recently defunct journal, "The Unicorn." It is +effective, but to me personally, the colour scheme is even more crude +than the exigencies of a poster demand. Mr. Reginald Cleaver, whose +sketches of scenes in the House of Commons created so favourable an +impression in "The Daily Graphic," has not yet, I believe, deliberately +produced a pictorial poster; but one of his drawings, reproduced on +a large scale, lends itself well enough to the purposes of mural +advertisement. Mr. Sydney Adamson, the art editor of + +"To-day" and "The Idler," has done a bill which, when it is seen, will +be Jield, I have small doubt, a very striking performance. It is happily +conceived and boldly executed, and should make a striking patch of +colour on the hoardings. + +Merely to chronicle the names of the innumerable Wilsons who are +producing pictures would take quite a considerable space. It may be +noted in passing that, like Edgar of that name, Mr. W. Wilson has also +attempted an _affiche_. + +Among others who have designed posters which have yet to be seen an the +hoardings are Mr. Max Cowper, Mr. A. R. Miller, Mr. Kerr Lawson, Mr. F. +H. Townsend, whose black and white work one meets everywhere, Mr. Roche, +a prominent member of the Glasgow School, and one of the greatest living +English artists, Mr. Phil May. + +Mr. Phil May is not the only "Punch" man who has been seized with the +prevailing mania for the production of posters. His colleague, Mr. +Bernard Partridge, has already designed one which is reproduced in these +pages. One associates Mr. Partridge with dainty and idyllic work rather +than with work which is vigorous, but his first essay in the poster +seems to me to be very promising. Mr. J. T. Manuel's work is as unlike +that of Mr. Bernard Partridge as possible. His pictures might be by a +clever member of the young French School who + +[Illustration: 0278] + +[Illustration: 0280] + +[Illustration: 0282] + +[Illustration: 0284] + +[Illustration: 0286] + +[Illustration: 0288] + +[Illustration: 0290] + +[Illustration: 0292] + +[Illustration: 0294] + +[Illustration: 0296] + +[Illustration: 0298] + +have taken more than a hint from Forain. The designs for posters which +Mr. Manuel exhibited at the Westminster Aquarium, if not so distinctive +of his talent as his contributions in black and white to "Pick-Me-Up," +were not without definite merit. Of the three, that catalogued as "A +Music-hall Singer" struck me as the best. It should be purchased by Miss +Minnie Cunningham, for the likeness between her, and the young lady +it represents, if accidental, is marvellous. Among young decorative +painters of the day who are not mere imitators of such masters as Sir +Edward Burne-Jones or Puvis de Chavannes, but have invented a style for +themselves, must be included Mr. Charles Ffoulkes. The two examples of +his poster-work here reproduced are as beautiful in colour as they are +refined in pattern. Moreover, they proclaim themselves in loud tones. +Their tones, however, are those of a silver trumpet rather than those of +cymbal or of gong. At times Mr. Ffoulkes forsakes his lofty imaginings +and depicts _chic_ young ladies quite in the best French manner. Mr. L. +Solon's poster, reproduced here, is a very characteristic example of his +decorative style. In inventing it, the artist has clearly kept before +him the fact that a poster cannot live by beauty alone; if, happily, +there be beauty, there must of necessity be advertisement, else is +failure inevitable. + +[Illustration: 0300] + +Very unlike Mr. Solon's poster are the _affiches_ of Mr. Heywood Sumner; +those which I reproduce here seem to me to be very characteristic of his +graceful gift of design. Mr. Morrow is already an established favourite +on the hoardings of London, and justly so in that his performances are +of exceptional merit. His "Illustrated Bits" + +[Illustration: 0302] + +is a radiant affair, and his "New Woman" makes quite a pretty picture. +His works should certainly be collected. + +Of Mr. R. Anning Bell it is not too much to say that for versatility +only Mr. Walter Crane among English artists can be said to rival him, +and, what is far more important, his success in a medley of mediums is +not to be gainsaid. His poster for the Liverpool School of Art, over +which he presides, is a magnificent piece of decoration, and nothing so +fine, in its way, has ever been, seen on English hoardings. It takes one +up to the Elgin marbles; it is an oasis of the classical in a desert of +the new. I can only mention the following native artists, not previously +considered, who have produced pictorial posters of interest: Mr. F. +Barnard ("Everybody should read in the European School"), Mr. F. Simpson +("Land of the Midnight Sun," "To Norway Fjords"), Mr. Robert Fowler, +R.I., whose poster for the Walker Art Gallery is here illustrated, Mr. +Sidney Haward (p. 279), Mr. Skipworth ("An Artist's Model"), Mr. Skinner +("Pall Mall Magazine"), Mr. Starr Wood and Mr. A. G. Draper. + +I have already remarked that the poster movement in this country amounts +to a positive revolution. No young artist is satisfied unless he has a +hand in the decoration of the hoardings; the gold frame is for the time +forgotten, and all have their eyes on the lithographer's stone. France +has undoubtedly had a long start of us, but if she is to retain her +supremacy she must look to her laurels. Our young men are beating at +her doors, though beating only in a spirit of friendly rivalry. Happily, +between England and France there is, at this moment, only one war-the +war of the pictorial poster. + +[Illustration: 0304] + +[Illustration: 0306] + + + + +CHAPTER IX.--IN AMERICA + +|In the sweet uses of advertisement the American is surely an expert, +and it would have been curious indeed, if he had overlooked so obvious +and so effective a method of advertising as the pictorial poster. +Finding, in the notorious phrase of Mr. Whistler, that "Art was on +the town," the American advertiser was one of the most eager of those +passing gallants who chucked her under the chin. Who it was originated +the artistic poster movement in the States, it were hard to say with +certainty: it may have been Mr. Matt. Morgan. Among recent American +poster producers, three, however, are most conspicuous, Mr. Edward +Penfield, Mr. Louis J. Rhead, and Mr. Will. H. Bradley. It is probable +that the first-named was the innovator: at least, one would be tempted +to judge so from the quantity of his designs. + +Mr. Penfield is still young, having been born at Brooklyn in the year +1866, so that if he was the first American artist to deal with the +poster, the movement in that continent is obviously a recent one. +Most of his posters are on a small scale, and partake of the nature +of window-bills rather than of placards especially destined to the +hoarding. At the same time, Mr. Penfield has been by no means slow to +appreciate that it is the first + +[Illustration: 0309] + +business of an advertisement to advertise, and his appreciation of this +fad, coupled with a very dainty fancy and no small technical skill, has +led to results which are of unquestionable importance. With his earliest +efforts I cannot pretend to be well acquainted. In 1893 he produced +for a firm at Salem a large bill which measures eighty-one by forty-two +inches. The subject is a girl in a black dress and yellow jacket who is +laden with packages. For the publications of the firm of Harpers, +Mr. Penfield has done quite a quantity of excellent and artistic +advertisements. Amongst the most effective is one produced for a special +midsummer number of "Harper's Bazar," representing a girl playing +a banjo, divided by a crimson sun from an attentive listener of the +opposite sex. Again, for the issue of July, 1894, the artist gives us +a girl in white lighting red crackers arranged to spell the name of the +month. For the February number of the following year, we are presented, +most appropriately, with a gentleman posting a valentine in an orange +coloured letter-box. In April of the same year, Mr. Penfield gives us +Joan of Arc in yellow, wielding sword and staff. Amongst the numerous +books which Mr. Penfield has advertised may be mentioned "The Cloister +and the Hearth," "Pastime Stories," "Our English Cousins," and +"Perlycross." This artist's work is always ingeniously conceived, and +the colour schemes are not seldom pleasantly audacious. Mr. Penfield +gives us very agreeable versions of the American girl in general, and of +the "summer girl" in particular. His maidens are adorably conscious of +their power to charm, and are fully alive to the fact that their gowns +are of the smartest. + +To turn from Mr. Penfield to Mr. Louis J. Rhead is to turn to an artist +settled in the United States, but English by birth and education. Mr. +Rhead was born at Etruria, that unclassical place with the classical +name, and comes of a family of artists. He was, I believe, a student at +South + +[Illustration: 0312] + +[Illustration: 0314] + +Kensington for several years, and only reached America in 1883. He has +exhibited at the + +[Illustration: 0316] + +Salon and the Academy and other important picture shows. + +Mr. Rhead seems to have taken to the poster with the greatest +enthusiasm, and he has undoubtedly produced a series of curious and +striking designs. By far the most important of his efforts, though not +the largest, are the designs which he has done for the New York "Sun." +In one of these very daring productions, a crimson sun glows in a golden +sky. The ground is green, the footpath and the trees are blue, while the +girl's costume is garnet and red. It must be confessed that this +colour scheme sounds somewhat formidable, but Mr. Rhead has invented an +arrangement at once artistic and compelling. The lettering, it must be +noted with regret, is not from his own hand. One of the largest of Mr. +Rhead's posters is the "Pearline," in which a girl in a green and red +dress is represented in the act of pinning a sheet on to a line. This +design measures forty-one by twenty-eight inches. Of considerable +size, and of no small merit, is the poster executed for the "Century," +Christmas, 1894, the chief feature of which is a girl with a peacock. +Among other effective designs which stand to the credit of Mr. Rhead +may be mentioned those advertising "Harper's Bazar," Christmas, 1890, +Thanksgiving, 1894, and Christmas of the same year. For the "Century," +besides that already noticed, he has done several interesting posters, +and he helped to advertise various numbers of "St. Nicholas" last year. +It is to be noted that + +[Illustration: 0318] + +Mr. Louis Rhead has held an exhibition of his posters, the catalogue of +which, by reason of its very characteristic and personal decorations, is +highly esteemed by collectors of those unconsidered trifles which end in +becoming especially dear to the connoisseur. + +Among the magazines of the world, the "Chap Book," which emanates from +Chicago, is by no means the least interesting. Fascinating as is the +title, the contents of this little periodical are still more so; its +editors seem to have eschewed banality, and to have gone in for novelty, +even when the new did not possess an extraordinary degree of merit. It +were meet that so original a publication should have an advertiser of +corresponding eccentricity. In Mr. Will. H. Bradley, the proprietors of +the "Chap Book" undoubtedly possess such an one. Born at Springfield, +Massachusetts, Mr. Bradley lives in Chicago, and to that town and its +publications he has mainly devoted his energies as an artist advertiser. +It will hardly be disputed that he has seen and assimilated, in no small +degree, the manner of Mr. Aubrey Beardsley. He is, however, a great deal +more than a mere imitator; what he has borrowed, he has borrowed with +conspicuous intelligence, and nobody could for a moment accuse him of +anything approaching petty larceny. Among his most important posters +is a colossal one which, in the manner of Mr. Beardsley, proclaims +the attractions of the drama by Mr. Henry Arthur Jones, entitled "The +Masqueraders." In 1894 Mr. Bradley advertised the "Chap Book" by means +of two dancers in red and brown costumes; the following year he insisted +on the same publication by means of a girl in white and a man in black; +and yet again, through the medium of a young lady in blue, mixed up with +trees in intense purple, outlined with red and white; and several other +equally effective compositions. + +Mr. Bradley is, however, not the only artist intimately connected with +Chicago who has distinguished himself in the production of posters. A +native of that city, Mr. Will. Carqueville, has done very interesting +work for the firm of Lippincott's. In the year 1894, at least one design +by him was commissioned, and in the succeeding year he produced four or +more. That he is not afraid of colour is proved by the fact that in +the poster done for Lippincott's, March, 1895, he combines dark purple, +yellow, blue, and bronze. In another design we meet with red, purple, +yellow, and blue. Mr. Kenyon Cox is an American artist whose fame is by +no means confined to the United States. A pupil of Gerome and Carolus +Duran, he has, so far as I know, made only one essay in the art of the +poster. This measures eighty-one by forty inches, and is in black +and white. It represents a male figure carrying a torch, and is an +advertisement for "Scribner's Magazine." Mr. Scotson Clark was a +schoolfellow of Mr. Aubrey Beardsley. He has, among other posters, done +two to which the picturesque labels of "Our Lady of the Peacock +Feather," and "Lady of the Iris," are attached. In addition, for the +March issue of the "Bookman," 1895, Mr. Scotson Clark drew a monk, with +book in hand. Mr. George Wharton Edwards, the well-known painter in +water-colours, must be credited with three designs for the "Century," in +the months of February, March, and April, 1895. Moreover, by means of a +drawing of a girl and a peacock, he proclaimed the twenty-eighth +annual exhibition of the American Water-Colour Society, in addition to +designing a bill for a book entitled "The Man Who Married the Moon." +The advertising enterprise of the firm of Scribner has made +poster-collectors the richer by one or two productions by Mr. Charles +Gibson Dana. He it was who announced, with no inconsiderable skill, the +issues of "Scribner's Magazine" for the months of January and February, +1895. Mr. Archie Gunn is the son of a well-known drawing master in one +of the large towns of the Midlands. Leaving England for America, he +found an outlet for his talent as a draughtsman on the New York journal +"Truth." His work is nearly always vivacious, even where it is not +particularly original. His posters were done for the "Illustrated +American," and are by no means bad examples of his craftsmanship. Like +most prominent American artists, Mr. Thomas Burford Meteyard studied in +Paris. His poster to advertise a book called + +[Illustration: 0324] + +[Illustration: 0326] + +[Illustration: 0328] + +[Illustration: 0332] + +[Illustration: 0334] + +[Illustration: 0336] + +[Illustration: 0338] + +"Songs from Vagabondia" is in black and white, and consists of portraits +of the artist himself and the authors of the book, Mr. Bliss Carman and +Mr. Richard Hovey. A limited number of copies were printed "sur Japon," +and these, I believe, are rare. As in the case of so many other American +artists, Mr. Francis Day's poster work was done for the most part for +the great illustrated magazines which do such credit to the United +States, as an art-producing nation. Mr. Day's design for "St. Nicholas," +Christmas, 1894, seems to me altogether agreeable, while in the series +designed for "Scribner's Magazine," more than one interesting thing will +be found. + +In dealing with the poster in England, we have noticed the fact that one +woman, Mrs. Dearmer, has succeeded in producing a bill at once artistic +and effective. Miss Ethel Reed would seem to be the most conspicuous +lady-artist who has taken up the designing of artistic posters in +the States. Her efforts date only from last February, when she did +an advertisement for the "Boston Sunday Herald." Since then she has +produced several designs which are held in considerable esteem by +American collectors. Amongst other artists who have taken part in the +poster movement on the other side of the Atlantic are the following: +Messrs. Alder ("New York World," March 17th, 1895), Allen, Palmer Cox +("New Brownie Book"), C. Miles Gardner ("Boston Sunday Herald," February +10th, 1895, and March 10th, 1895), Oliver Herford, Charles M. Howard +("Boston Sunday Herald," April 21st, 1895), Frank King ("New York +World," April 7th, 1895), H. McCarter (the Green Tree Library), Moores +("St. Nicholas," November, 1894), Julius A. Schweinfurth (Boston +Festival Orchestra, 1895), W. Granville Smith ("Scribner's Magazine," +Christmas, 1894), W. L. Taylor, Abby E. Underwood, R. Wills Irving, C. +H. Woodbury, Charles Hubbard Wright, and William M. Paxton. The last +named has been chiefly associated with the "Boston Sunday Herald," and +for that journal he has produced several posters of distinction. + +My review of the artistic poster movement in America has been of +necessity brief, and cannot, therefore, be free from sins of omission. +In writing it, I have, where my own knowledge has seemed to me +insufficient, made use of the descriptive catalogue of the collection +of American posters published last May by Mr. Charles Knowles Bolton, +of Brookline, Massachusetts. From the useful bibliography printed at the +end of this pamphlet, it would seem that the movement has been watched +from the first by the American press with keen interest. So far back +as the year 1892, we find Mr. Brander Matthews discussing the pictorial +poster in the "Century" magazine. In the + +[Illustration: 0342] + +[Illustration: 0344] + +present year the subject has been dealt with by writers in such +important newspapers as the "New York Tribune" and the "Boston Herald," +to say nothing of such journals as "Scribner's Magazine," the "Critic," +the "Art Interchange," and the "Art Amateur." Quite recently the English +public have had opportunities of seeing the best work by French and +native artists. It is to be hoped that at the next poster exhibition +they will be afforded a chance of seeing what excellent work American +designers are doing in this very practical branch of applied art. + +A poster by Mr. E. A. Abbey, illustrated on page 315, arrived too late +for consideration in its proper place. It is entirely worthy the great +reputation of the artist who has so kindly permitted us to reproduce +it here. The figure is in red scale armour, bearing a shield with a red +cross. + +[Illustration: 0346] + +[Illustration: 0348] + + + + +CHAPTER X.--IN COUNTRIES NOT ALREADY DISCUSSED + +|That the picture poster was an incident of the ancient civilizations of +China and Japan; goes without saying. The scope, however, of this book +does not embrace the Far East; the illustrated placard in the Orient +would, indeed, be a subject in itself. In the matter of applied art it +is difficult to conceive anything which the Chinese and the Japanese +have not attempted. They seem, from the earliest days, to have been +consumed with a passion for decoration; nothing which by any chance +admitted of ornament was left undecorated. It behoves the societies +which are formed for the purpose of illustrating the artistic +antiquities of these wonderful countries to concern themselves with the +dawn and history of the pictorial poster in the East. Certain it is +that the illustrated advertisement abounded, as it abounds today, in the +cities of both the nations now being discussed. It is, indeed, found +in the less advanced civilization of Burma, and of the various +principalities which form our Indian Empire. To pass from Asia to +Spain is to travel a long way. In Spain, at the present moment, the +illustrated placard is receiving no small attention at the hands of +artists who, however discouraged and ill-paid, are determined to do all +that in them lies to raise the country which produced Murillo to the +position she once held among art-producing nations. A recent writer in +the "Sketch" grows enthusiastic over the Spanish _affiche_. "Spanish +posters," he tells us, "are a delight. Well drawn, vividly but +truly coloured, and perfectly printed, they shine down from walls and +hoardings, attracting all passers-by. They depict the glories of coming +fairs and bull-fights, and are couched in terms calculated to draw +money from a stone. The announcement that a famous matador will kill, or +assist to kill, _Seis Escogidos Toros_, throws the Spanish reader into +a state of frenzy. Not infrequently some incident is depicted with frank +realism. A bull standing over a dead horse gives an opportunity to +the artist to draw the unfortunate horse disembowelled and lying +on blood-stained sand, while the bull's hide shows the marks of +the lance-thrusts, and his horns are likewise stained with blood. +Colour-printing is so good in these regions of perpetual sunlight that +nearly every detail of a matador's costume can be given. The poster +artists are splendid when they depict + +[Illustration: 0352] + +[Illustration: 0358] + +[Illustration: 0360] + +movement; they are satisfactory in their purely decorative work, but +figures in repose are apt to become 'woodeny.' In point of colour, +Spain beats France; and as France is so much in advance of England, it +scarcely needs a Euclid to demonstrate that English posters cannot be +compared to those of Spain. The latter exhibit at times an admirable +sense of distance and proportion, which serves to show that their +designers learnt to draw before they began to paint." The four examples +reproduced here will serve to indicate the type of Spanish poster most +frequently met with. Whether Spain, in the matter of the pictorial +placard, is in advance of France or not, is a question of taste. However +brilliant the colour of the Spanish _affiche_, the design seems to me to +lack boldness. Take, for example, the "Gran Feria de Cordoba, 1895;" in +this case the whole thing appears to be a series of elaborate details +rather than a bold and impressive design. The poster in Spain, however, +is rapidly becoming of interest, dealing as it does with fascinating +and essentially picturesque subjects. It is difficult to obtain exact +information concerning the artists who design posters in Spain; the +examples which I reproduce here, I cannot attribute to anybody with any +degree of certainty. + +The Teutonic temperament is in no sense akin to the Spanish, and the +pictorial posters of Germany are utterly unlike those of Spain. For the +most part the Germans have, in the past, been addicted to elaborate and +often admirably-executed lithographs, such, for instance, as that done +by Ernest Klint for the Musical and Theatrical Exhibition held at Vienna +in 1892. A new movement is, it appears, making itself conspicuous just +now. The younger generation of German designers seem to be as anxious +to experiment in the making of posters as those of France and England. +Joseph Sattler, a designer of considerable originality and great +dexterity, who has studied Albrecht Duerer with great advantage to his +own work, has designed a very curious little window bill to advertise +"Pan." It is reproduced here, and its strange individuality, its +ingenuity, will not fail to make an impression upon those who look at it +closely. The lettering is devised in an extraordinary way, and Sattler +may be congratulated on the results of an interesting experiment. Very +different to the work of Sattler is that of Franz Stuck. This represents +a classical head in mosaic, and advertises an exhibition of the +Munich Secessionists, a body of experimental painters and designers of +rapidly-growing importance. The tendency of the illustrated poster in +Austria is much the same as it is in Germany. Some admirable bills have +been designed in Italy. Of its particular kind, I have seen few things +better than a large and + +[Illustration: 0364] + +[Illustration: 0366] + +[Illustration: 0368] + +[Illustration: 0370] + +[Illustration: 0372] + +sombre poster to advertise Verdi's "Otello." At the same time, the +Italian posters are not of a very distinctive type, nor does Italian +taste concerning them appear to be very fastidious. The crude, enormous, +and vulgar advertisements for Buffalo Bill's exhibition created quite a +sensation in Rome when that redoubtable personage deigned to visit the +most august of European capitals. The modern Romans forgot their Michael +Angelo in the ecstasy induced by the latest enormity of the American +colour printer. It may be noted that some of the posters done for +the Italian railway companies are bright and gay as an Italian summer +itself. The pictorial poster would not seem to have taken a great hold +on Russia, nor, judging from a comparatively recent visit, has it made +much headway in Scandinavia. In Holland, the present artistic vitality +and enterprise of which are at once so astonishing and gratifying, one +meets with very few posters of conspicuous merit. In Belgium, on the +other hand, there are signs that the poster movement has affected not +a few artists of distinction. The placard by Evenepoel, designed to +advertise a publication in connexion with the Antwerp Exhibition, is +excellent in colour and pattern and most decidedly original, owing very +little to any foreign examples. Duyck's "Cortege des Fleurs (Ville de +Bruxelles)" is decorative and pleasing. This artist has also designed +another placard to advertise Spa (Ferme de Frahinfaz). To Delville we +owe a curious little placard, in the Symbolist manner, which advertised +"Pour l'art, Ier exposition a Bruxelles;" the advertisement for the second +exhibition was the work of Ottevaere. A fantastic and rather picturesque +poster was done to announce one of the annual exhibitions of "La Libre +Esthetique." It represents a strange-looking human being standing +among flowers, under a lurid sky, and holding in his hands a decorative +scroll, upon which the legend is inscribed. Amongst other interesting +Belgian placards are the "Velodrome Bruxellois" by G. Gaudy, the "Paul +Hankar" by A. Crespin, and a poster in monochrome in imitation of +a bas-relief bearing the legend "La plus noble force sociale est le +Droit." All of these are reproduced here. It may be noted in conclusion +that most of the Belgian posters show strong signs of French influence. + +[Illustration: 0376] + +[Illustration: 0378] + +[Illustration: 0380] + + + + +CHAPTER XI.--THE PRICE OF THE PICTORIAL POSTER; AND CONCLUDING NOTE + +|It is obviously impossible to state accurately the price of the +artistic poster, insomuch as fluctuations take place almost daily, +and, moreover, the numerous dealers vary in their quotations in an +extraordinary degree. Under these circumstances, the present chapter is +written as a matter of current record, rather than with the idea that +it will be of any permanent value for purposes of reference. It may +be stated at the outset, that in dealing with the value of the poster, +rarity has in the first place to be taken into consideration; and thus +it happens that, while delightfully artistic designs are comparatively +inexpensive, posters which are quite unattractive from the point of view +of art are often very costly. The prices which follow are for the most +part taken from the catalogues of M. Edmond Sagot of Paris, and Mr. +Bella of London, the latter of whom, by the organization of exhibitions +and in other ways, has rendered material assistance to English +collectors. In fact, to some extent, he has called the English collector +into existence. + +As an example of the price of the poster of which the interest is +archaeological rather than artistic, one may instance a placard, dated +the 20th of February, 1649, which deals with the opening and closing of +the gates of Paris. Its only claim to be considered pictorial consists +in the fact that it is ornamented with a woodcut representing the arms +of the city. Many similar productions were executed in relation to +London and to other English towns. The price asked for it three or four +years ago was thirty francs. Interesting from another point of view are +the illustrated posters which have heralded new books, or new editions +of books, by great writers. Three of these, relating to the works of +Balzac, and including one with woodcuts by Meissonier and Tony johannot, +are valued at twelve francs. + +It is time, however, to pass from pictorial posters, which are +interesting on account of age or literary association, to those which +derive their value from their qualities as works of art. In this class +some of the highest prices are obtained by the French artists who, for +the most part, were the contemporaries, or immediate successors, of +Gavarni. The best posters of this master are extremely difficult to +procure, and examples in a fine state realize large sums. + +For the "Oeuvres Choisis" bill, together with that designed to advertise +an illustrated edition of Balzac's "Philosophie de la Vie Conjugale," +something over a hundred francs is asked, while less important works can +be obtained for five-and-twenty or thirty francs. It goes without saying +that the smallest tear or other injury, however neatly and skilfully +repaired, heavily discounts the value of works by Gavarni and the men of +his time; but even slightly damaged examples are eagerly sought for, as +it is almost impossible to obtain perfect ones. Of the productions of +Edouard de Beaumont, two of the rarest are the "Nains Celebres," already +mentioned, and the "Diable Amoureux." For an exceptionally fine proof +of the former, as much as a hundred francs has been asked, while the +latter, which is very rare, commands about sixty francs. Sums scarcely +less formidable are given for the better posters of Grandville, and +fifty francs for a good Tony Johannot is not by any means an exceptional +price, although unimportant specimens of his work may be picked up in +Paris for a few sous. The excursions of Gustave Dore into the art of the +poster were very few. His most important work was perhaps the "Legende +du Juif Errant," a fine proof of which realizes sixty francs or more. +Posters by Vivant Beauce, Castelli, Cham, Victor Coindre, Charles +Devrits, H. Emy, A. Farcy, and others of the same period, for the most +part command sums comparatively small; the best productions of Bertall, +Calame, Monnier, and C. Nanteuil, on the other hand, are only a +little less expensive than those of Gavarni and the more distinguished +designers of his time. + +Of posters by designers still living, those of Cheret have been most +assiduously collected. It is probable that a complete set of his works +does not exist; even one which is fairly representative, and includes +some of his earlier and rarer _affiches_, is extremely valuable. In the +Sagot catalogue of 1891, over five hundred and fifty posters by Cheret +are described, and of these no less than eighty are priced at twenty +francs or more. Since the publication of the catalogue, their value +has steadily increased, and it is uncertain if many of them can now be +procured at all. The collector of modest means need not, however, regret +that the older and rarer examples of Cheret are beyond his reach, for +the artist's more recent posters are the best that he has accomplished. +For a comparatively small outlay, one may secure the flower of Cheret's +work. Amongst the most valuable of his posters are two, of very large +size, designed to advertise some Arabs who appeared with the Paris +Hippodrome when it visited London in 1887. The price asked for them +is over two pounds. They seem to have escaped the attention of French +collectors from the fact that they were posted exclusively in London. +The set of four + +[Illustration: 0386] + +Loie Fuller bills, in all of which the design is the same but the +colouring different, is worth between thirty and forty shillings. +These designs are among the most daring and characteristic specimens +of Cheret's amazing colour, and as they only measure forty-nine by +thirty-three inches, they are of manageable size, and should find +their way into the portfolio of every collector. The set of unlettered +decorative panels which were described in an earlier part of the book, +is at present sold by all dealers for five pounds. It goes without +saying that proofs before letters, or prints on special paper, of the +posters of Cheret, or of nearly any other artist, are much more valuable +than ordinary copies. + +Most of, the posters of other living French artists may still be +procured for a few shillings, but it is extremely improbable that such +a state of things will long continue to be the case. Already examples by +men of the modern school, such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Anquetin, Bonnard, +Steinlen, and Ibels, are in great demand, and collectors should use the +present opportunity to procure a series of these curiously interesting +designs before the prices rise. Even now, Lautrec's first attempt, +"Le Pendu," has become _rarissime_, and is valued at something over a +sovereign. What has happened in this case will doubtless happen in the +case of "La Reine de Joie," + +"Jane Avril," and Lautrec's other posters. The designs of Grasset +are rapidly taking their place by the side of those of Cheret in the +estimation of collectors, with the result that several of them command +large prices. Thus the "Librairie Romantique," which was offered in 1891 +for three francs, was priced by the same dealer in November, 1894, at +twenty. What is going on in the case of Cheret, Grasset, and Lautrec, is +going on, though it may be somewhat less rapidly, in the case of +those other artists who have assisted to make the French _affiche_ the +charming and artistic thing it is. + +The posters of those artists who were the pioneers of the artistic +poster movement in England are extremely rare. They worked in the days +before the English collector existed, and any copies of their designs +not actually posted, probably fell into the hands of the waste-paper +dealer. I have been unable to trace any copies of the advertisement done +by Fred Walker for "The Woman in White," but the original design has +been recently exhibited in London, and the price put upon it by its +owners is seventy guineas. Copies of Mr. Walter Crane's "Hippodrome" +bill are extremely rare, as are those designed by Professor Herkomer for +the "Magazine of Art," "Black and White," and the exhibition of his own +works. Turning to the younger men, it is interesting to note that Mr. +Dudley Hardy's "Yellow Girl" sells in Paris for twenty francs, the large +"Gaiety Girl" for half as much, and the smaller bills for the same play +for five francs. The first poster which this artist did for "St. Paul's" +is very difficult to meet with; it will doubtless be among the most +valuable of Mr. Hardy's designs. Mr. Beardsley's "Avenue" poster is +quoted neither by Mr. Bella nor M. Sagot, and it may therefore be +concluded that it is almost impossible to obtain it. The other posters +of this designer are steadily increasing in value, and are +eagerly sought for by collectors on both sides of the Channel. Mr. +Greiffenhagen's "Pall Mall" poster, which has met with much success +abroad, is worth about half a sovereign. The dainty little bill which +Mr. Wilson Steer did for the exhibition of his paintings at the Goupil +Gallery fetches about the same amount, and is rapidly becoming scarce. +It is pleasant to think that the early efforts of English artists are +welcomed by French collectors as enthusiastically as the masterpieces of +French artists by collectors in England. + +The poster is obviously difficult to collect, because of its size. +Not all of us are proprietors of such an immensity as the Chicago +Exhibition. Most of us, on the other hand, could paper a room with +posters of Lautrec alone. Everybody, however, can put the smaller bills +into a portfolio, while the larger ones may be mounted as ordinary +school maps. The collecting of pictorial posters needs nothing more than +a little heroism. + +In the foregoing chapters, I have attempted to outline the history of +art as applied to the poster, and to give an account of the pictorial +placard in the present state of its development. The number of names, +eminent in the history of various modern arts and crafts, who have +applied themselves to the production of the pictorial poster seems to +me to justify the publication of this book. The fact that men so highly +endowed as Cheret and Lautrec deliberately choose to appeal to the +public chiefly by means of the _affiche_, well knowing that their +gallery is the common hoarding, places the illustrated poster outside +the bounds of ridicule. A modern art critic of high repute and of +enormous energy has assured us that, in these days, to neglect the +poster is mere folly on the part of those who care for the application +of taste and skill to the objects of everyday life. We are apt to talk +of artistic periods; periods when the most ordinary objects had an +aesthetic character of their own. It seems to me to be full of promise +for the future that the hoarding should be among the first necessities +of modern civilization to be rendered charming by the skill and +imagination of the artist. Art is generally supposed to be inimical +to commerce, and commerce inimical to art, yet here we have the two +combining to the advantage of both, and succeeding in making the +beautiful an incident of the necessary. + +[Illustration: 0391] + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Picture Posters, by Charles Hiatt + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PICTURE POSTERS *** + +***** This file should be named 45555.txt or 45555.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/5/5/5/45555/ + +Produced by David Widger from page images generously +provided by the Internet Archive + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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