A Brief History of the Poster:
The Belle Epoque Area: During the 1890s, called the ‘Belle Epoque’
in France, a poster craze came into full bloom. In 1891, Toulouse-Lautrec’s
first poster, Moulin Rouge, elevated the status of the poster to fine art.
Poster exhibitions, magazines and dealers proliferated, satisfying the public’s love affair with the poster. Early in the decade, the pioneering Parisian dealer Sagot listed 2200 different posters in his sales catalog!
In 1894, Alphonse Mucha, a Czech working in Paris, created the first
masterpiece of Art Nouveau poster design. The flowery, ornate style
was born practically overnight when Mucha was pressed to produce a
poster for Sarah Bernhardt, the brilliant actress who had taken Paris
by storm. Bearing multiple influences including the Pre-Raphaelites,
the Arts and Crafts Movement, and Byzantine art, this style was to
dominate the Parisian scene for the next ten years and to become the
major international decorative art movement up until World War
The poster slowly took hold in other countries in the 1880s,
but quickened during the Belle Epoque. In each country, the poster came
to the fore to celebrate the society’s unique cultural institutions. In
France, the cult of the café (including absinthe and other alcoholic
products) was omnipresent; in Italy the opera and fashion; in Spain
the bullfight and festivals; in Holland literature and products for the home;
in Germany trade fairs and magazines, in Britain and America literary
journals and the circus.
The first poster shows were held in Great Britain and Italy in
1894, Germany in 1896, and Russia in 1897. The most important poster
show ever, to many observers, was held in Reims, France in 1896 and
featured an unbelievable 1,690 posters arranged by country.
Despite cross-pollination, distinctive national styles became
more apparent as the Belle Epoque progressed. Dutch posters were
marked by restraint and orderliness; Italian posters by their drama
and grand scale; German posters for their directness and medievalism.
The all-powerful influence of France had found a counterbalance.
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