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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in the shape of a hitherto unpublished study for a poster; while the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the reproduction of unpublished copyright designs by Messrs.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.