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.