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
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CONTENTS
[ CHAPTER I. THE STORY OF THE PICTORIAL POSTER ]
[ CHAPTER II.—IN FRANCE DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY ]
[ CHAPTER III.—IN FRANCE. THE WORK OF CHÉRET, GRASSET, AND TOULOUSE-LAUTREC ]
[ CHAPTER IV.—IN FRANCE: THE WORK OF WILLETTE, FORAIN, STEINLEN ]
[ CHAPTER V.—IN FRANCE: THE WORK OF GUILLAUME, PALEOLOGUE, CHOU-BRAC ]
[ CHAPTER VI.—IN ENGLAND: FROM FRED WALKER TO DUDLEY HARDY ]
[ CHAPTER VII.—IN ENGLAND: THE WORK OF DUDLEY HARDY, AUBREY BEARDSLEY ]
[ CHAPTER VIII.—THE WORK OF OTHER CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH DESIGNERS ]
[ CHAPTER X.—IN COUNTRIES NOT ALREADY DISCUSSED ]
[ CHAPTER XI.—THE PRICE OF THE PICTORIAL POSTER; AND CONCLUDING NOTE ]
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 Prætor; 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 IÆ. 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 Chéret of his age: he was the great artistic advertiser of ancient Rome, just as Chéret 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 Chéret 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 François I relating to the police of the city of Paris, which runs: "Nous voulons que ces présentes ordonnances soient publiées tous les moys de l'an, par tous les quarrefours de cette ville de Paris et faux bourgs d'icelle, à son de trompe et cry public. Et néantmoins quelles soient attachées a un tableau, escriptes en parche-main et en grosse lettre, en tous les seize quartiers de ladite ville de Paris es esdiétz faux bourgs, et lieux les plus éminents 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 "attachées 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 François 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 arrêt 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 Célestin Nanteuil engaged in producing an advertisement for an edition of "Robert Macaire," dated 1837. The year following, Rafifet brought out his "Napoléon de Norvins." This work is signed as well as dated. Raffet, in addition to the "Napoléon 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 Eugène Gauché, 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 illustré 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
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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,
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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
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E. Marco de S. Hilaire, illustrated by Bertrand, a poster (which was, perhaps, an enlargement of the cover) exists. It is a very
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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
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of pigs in different costumes is the main feature), "Des Animaux," "Ma Tante," "Petit Misère," and "St. Helène." 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
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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
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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 Célèbres," by E. de Beaumont. An illustrated poster of a kind utterly different to the one last discussed is by T. H. Frère. 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.
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CHAPTER III.—IN FRANCE. THE WORK OF CHÉRET, 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 Chéret, 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 Chéret in the magnitude and curiosity of his achievement. Many have produced charming wall pictures: nobody, save Chéret, has made an emphatic mark on the aspect of a metropolis. Paris, without its Chérets, 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 Chéret's posters greet one joyously as one passes every hoarding, smile at one from the walls of every café, arrest one before the windows of every kiosque. The merits of the Saxoléine 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 Chéret 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 Chéret'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
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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 Chéret'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 Chéret was concerned, to this day. Commencing as the humblest of lithographers, Chéret 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 Chéret 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, Chéret'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
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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, Chéret 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 naïve 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 Chéret's work together, one becomes aware of a certain feeling of monotony. One can be satiated even of Chéret's gaiety and joyousness.
To attempt any account of Chéret'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, Chéret 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'Opéra au Musée Grevin," a delightfully piquant representation of a group of premières 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, Chéret 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 Chéret has contrived for the Folies Bergère, the Moulin Rouge, the Alcazar d'Eté, and similar places of amusement In order to sum up his talent as a designer of posters, Chéret has produced four decorative panels, which, although without lettering,
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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 Chéret, 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, Chéret, 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 Chéret, 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 Hôtel de Ville, his excursions into the art of the hoarding will be less frequent than has been the case hitherto.
To turn from Chéret to Eugène 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 Chéret, 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 Chéret. 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 Chéret. A panel of his posters, side by side with a panel of those of Chéret, 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
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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 "Fêtes de Paris," attracted by its
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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 naïve 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 "Odéon Théâtre" 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 façade of Nôtre 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," "Napoléon," "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
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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,
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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
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as in the greatest, he is not merely scrupulous, but even fastidious.
It is no dispraise of Chéret 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
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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 café 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
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by a happy accident, Lautrec has employed a scheme of colour in which are found the pale
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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
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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 répertoire. 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 Chéret 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 Chéret 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 législatives 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 passé.
Laisse-toi cuellir au passage
Papillon d'Actualité,"
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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 défendent le cacao contre le chocolat." The other posters of this artist include the rare "Petite National," the "Evénement Parisien" (which was, I believe, suppressed), the "Courrier Française," the "Exposition Charlet," and the "Elysée 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
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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 Illustré 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 Vingeannestérilisé," 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
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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 Chéret 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 Rêve." 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 Colorées"; 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
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that with some the "Mévisto à 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 café 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 Mévisto'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 "Irène Henry." The café 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 café, 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
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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 décolletée girl, who holds in one hand a
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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 Pé. la Pé, la pépinièré" could well be imagined. It represents a characteristic audience at a
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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, Edmée 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 Métivetare of very unequal merit. On the one hand the designs done by him for Eugénie Buffet, in her realistic répertoire of songs, are extremely distinguished. While, on the other, I could point to examples by this artist which are utterly unworthy his talent. Amongst Métivet's earlier works are "La Famille, journal hebdomadaire illustré," and "L'Hygiène." A more recent bill advertises "Les Joyeuses commères de Paris," but Métivet's talent is seen at its best in the Eugénie 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, SCHWÆBE, 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 Chéret 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-siècle 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 Pôle 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
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