Picture Posters: A Short History of the Illustrated Placard with Many Reproductions of the Most Artistic Examples in all CountriesHiatt, Charles
History
Picture Posters: A Short History of the Illustrated Placard with Many Reproductions of the Most Artistic Examples in all Countries
Hiatt, Charles
Posters -- History
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]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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