|While the pictorial poster undoubtedly existed in England previous to
the production of Fred Walker's "Woman in White," its artistic qualities
were conspicuous by their absence. No body of artists who designed
posters, such as that of which Ga-varni was one in France, is to be met
with in the history of English art until the present day. While, as Mr.
Spielmann reminds us in a recent magazine article, Mr. Godfroy Durand
and Mr. Walter Crane had both attempted the artistic _affiche_ previous
to Walker, the efforts of neither made a pronounced impression, nor were
they productive of permanent results. The work of the first of these
three artists announced the appearance of the then newly-founded
"Graphic," and that of Mr. Walter Crane proclaimed the merits of a brand
of lead pencils. It is interesting, as an example of Mr. Crane's immense
versatility in decorative design, that he should be among the pioneers
of the poster movement in this country. That his early effort was
overshadowed by Walker's very imposing work is not a matter of surprise.
From the first, Walker appears to have been deeply impressed by the
possibilities of the hoardings as a free art gallery. To use his own
words, as quoted by Mr. Spielmann: "I am impressed on doing all I
can with a first attempt at what I consider might develop into a most
important branch of art." How Walker's view has been realized the mere
existence of this book is sufficient to prove. This design, which
was done to advertise Wilkie Collins's novel, "The Woman in White,"
represents a magnificently-draped female figure stepping through a door
out into the night. With one hand she opens the door, with the other
she imposes silence on some person unseen. This was cut on wood by W. H.
Hooper, who also engraved the small block we are permitted to reproduce
here from "The Magazine of Art." The design is in black and white, and
has the limitations from the advertising point of view of black and
white work; but, apart from this, it is in every way a work which
could not fail to impress the passer-by. "The Woman in White" is,
unfortunately, Walker's sole essay in the art of the poster; on the
other hand, Mr. Walter Crane has produced a series which, we may hope,
has yet to close. It would seem that over ten years elapsed between his
first and second attempts in the art of the poster. We meet with him for
the second time in a design in blue and yellow
[Illustration: 0207]
which advertised the Covent Garden Promenade Concerts given in 1880.
This has become extremely rare, and the artist himself does not, I
believe, possess a copy. Following the Covent Garden bill was one
announcing the performances in London of the Paris Hippodrome Troupe.
This is merely an enlargement on a vast scale of a classical drawing
intended to adorn a book describing the show, but it is distinctly
interesting, more so, it seems to me, than the pretty little coloured
thing-a window-bill, rather than a poster-which advertises Hau's
champagnes. Other posters by Mr. Crane deal with an exhibition of
his own works, with various insurance companies, with the "English
Illustrated Magazine" (an enlarged version of the cover), and the
exhibitions of the Arts and Crafts Society. It will be seen that Mr.
Crane's contribution to the art of the poster is a very substantial one,
and if his designs do not always fulfil the sweet uses of advertisement,
they are generally marked by fine taste. It is a matter of common
knowledge that Professor Herkomer has left hardly any art or craft
untouched, and it therefore goes without saying that he has left some
of them unadorned. To succeed as painter, etcher, carver, musician, poet
and playwright, lecturer, and actor is not given to mere man. Professor
Herkomer's posters cannot, I think, be considered among his more
fortunate performances. That done for "The Magazine of Art" does not
lack a certain feeling for composition: the weird
[Illustration: 0209]
[Illustration: 0211]
[Illustration: 0213]
[Illustration: 0215]
creature who told us that "Black and White" was coming seemed to me
to lack both dignity and grace, and, moreover, to possess very few
compensating qualities. Amongst other posters by Professor Herkomer
is one for his own exhibition, and one for an exhibition of pictures
recently held at Oxford.
It should be noted that while most of the mural decorations of Mr. Crane
and Professor Herkomer are, strictly speaking, posters, in that they
were designed for the hoardings and for the hoardings alone, a great
many designs and pictures by eminent artists have been reproduced and
posted contrary to the original intention of their designers. The most
prominent of these is, of course, Sir John Millais' famous "Bubbles,"
on the reproduction of which enormous sums have been spent. The thing is
pretty enough, but cannot compete as an advertisement with a really good
poster properly so called. Of course the name of Sir John Millais was
one to conjure with, and the success of the thing has been, doubtless,
great. But it is not an experiment one cares to see frequently repeated.
Messrs. Pears were more happily inspired in the commission which they
gave to Mr. Stacy Marks to produce a _bona fide_ poster. His "Monks
Shaving," seems to be most excellently conceived, and, indeed, to be the
most interesting of Messrs. Pears
[Illustration: 0219]
[Illustration: 0221]
gallery of illustrated advertisements. Art has certainly played a very
prominent part in the battle of the soaps. Mr. G. D. Leslie used his
gifts to insist on the merits of the Sunlight brand, while Mr. Burton
Barber pleaded pictorially for the Lifebuoy brand. A curious bit of
poster-making was the reproduction of a random sketch of a girl sitting
on a champagne cork, by Mr. Linley Sambourne, which seems to meet us at
every turning. Again, Mr. Harry Furniss's man who had used Pears'
soap years back, "and since then had used no other," is an enlarged
reproduction used for advertising purposes of a drawing in "Punch."
On the other hand, the "Minerva," which Mr. Poynter designed for the
Guardian Assurance Company, was actually devised for the purpose of a
mural advertisement. It cannot be strictly called a poster, insomuch as
it is never seen in the open air unless glazed. It is a classical
design in several colours, and is of a very elaborate character. For the
purpose of exhibition indoors, it is glazed and mounted on linen with
rollers. Another contemporary English painter who has received very high
official recognition and has done a poster is Sir James Linton, P.R.I.
His subject was assuredly an attractive one, "Antony and Cleopatra," but
it can hardly be maintained that, for an artist of so great repute, he
has produced an especially memorable design. It is a lithograph in one
colour, and measures fifty by fifty-two inches. Its date is 1874, so it
is clear that Sir James Linton is among the little band who tried to do
something for the pictorial poster in
England when it was held of no account. Mr. Charles Green, a member
of the institution of which Sir James is president, produced a rather
ingenious advertisement of an exhibition of works in black and white
held some time ago in Mosley Street. It
[Illustration: 0223]
[Illustration: 0226]
is not very large, and is a lithograph in one colour.
It will be observed that the artistic poster was in the air in England
not very long after it began to develop in France. It does not, however,
seem to have taken so great a hold on English artists or on the English
public as on the artists and public of France. In England the artistic
poster appears to have been received coldly or with indifference,
and doubtless many designers who would have been glad to turn their
attention to the poster were deterred therefrom by lack of public
sympathy. But all this has happily been changed, and if the number of
poster designers is to continue increasing at the present rate, the
difficulty will be, not to find the artistic advertiser, but to find
the thing to be advertised. A crowd of clever young men, actuated by the
success which met the efforts of the designers dealt with in the next
chapter, have rushed to the poster with results altogether important.