Artist: Jules Chéret (1836 – 1932) was a French painter and lithographer who
became a master of Belle Époque poster art. He has been called the
father of the modern poster.
As his work became more popular and his
large posters displaying modestly free-spirited females found a larger
audience, pundits began calling him the "father of the women's
liberation." Females had previously been depicted in art as prostitutes
or puritans. The women of Chéret's posters, joyous, elegant and
lively—'Cherettes', as they were popularly called—were neither. It was
freeing for the women of Paris, and heralded a noticeably more open
atmosphere in Paris where women were able to engage in formerly taboo
activities, such as wearing low-cut bodices and smoking in public. These
'Cherettes' were widely seen and recognised, and a writer of the time
said "It is difficult to conceive of Paris without its 'Cheréts'.
Hi Guys ! I'm so excited. I just finished this
new poster. A custom bride and groom silhouette portrait. A beautiful
unique wedding gift ! I think it look great. What do you think?
The Eiffel Tower is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. It was named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticized by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.98 million people ascended it in 2011. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.
Available here
7 December 1887: Construction of the legs with scaffolding.
20 March 1888: Completion of 1st level.
15 May 1888: Start of construction of second stage.
1896
Lefèvre-Utile, a Nantes-based manufacturer of biscuits, commissioned
top artists to do their publicity. In addition to posters, Mucha also
designed box tops, wrappers and other printed matter for the company.
The social setting depicted in this poster is intended to show Lefèvre-Utile products to be consumed in high society.
Alphonse Mucha
Artist:
ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860 – 1939), was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and
decorative artist, known best for his distinct style. He produced many
paintings, illustrations, advertisements, postcards, and designs. His
Art Nouveau style was often imitated. The Art Nouveau style however, was
one that Mucha attempted to disassociate himself from throughout his
life; he always insisted that rather than maintaining any fashionable
stylistic form, his paintings were entirely a product of himself and
Czech art.
Biscuits LU
Advertising:
LEFEVRE UTILE, better known worldwide by the initials LU, is a
manufacturer brand of French biscuits, emblematic of the city of Nantes.
Lefèvre-Utile was founded in Nantes, France, in 1846 by Jean-Romain
Lefèvre. Originally he sold biscuits from the English factory Huntley
& Palmers and then he began his own production. The name LU comes
from Lefèvre and his business partner and wife, Pauline-Isabelle Utile.
Their initials were first utilized by Alfons Mucha for an 1897 calendar
ad for the Lefèvre-Utile Biscuit Co. That same year the company hired
Firmin Bouisset to create a poster ad. Bouisset, already noted for his
work for the Menier Chocolate company, created Petit Écolier ("the
Little Schoolboy") which incorporated the LU initials. Bouisset's poster
was used extensively and the image was embossed on the company's Petit
Beurre line of biscuits. Within a few years, the success of the logo resulted in the company becoming known as LU.
Last week I found an old 1964 romantic comedy film: "Paris When It Sizzles". Directed by Richard Quine. The film stars William Holden and Audrey Hepburn, and features Grégoire Aslan, Raymond Bussières and Noël Coward. and Tony Curtis.
The screenplay is by George Axelrod based on the story and film Holiday for Henrietta (La fête à Henriette) a 1952 French movie by Julien Duvivier and Henri Jeanson.
The story concerns a veteran playboy screenwriter named Richard Benson (William Holden) who has been paid to write a screenplay for his boss, Mr. Alexander Myerheim (Noël Coward). Overly set in his playboy and carousing ways, he procrastinates the writing of the screenplay until just two days before it is due. Gabrielle Simpson (Audrey Hepburn), a temp secretary hired by Benson to type the script, comes to Richard's hotel room where they are to work on the script, only then finding out about their tight deadline and that not one page or line of script had yet been written. The desperate and self-loathing writer, Richard, begins to be awakened and inspired by the beautiful Gabrielle, and starts to come up with various scenarios for his screenplay, called The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower, which is based on their unfolding romance. The screenplay, with small but inspired and comedic roles for Noël Coward, Tony Curtis, and other famous stars of the day, makes fun of the movie business, actors, studio heads and itself, and is rife with allusions to the iconic earlier roles of the two main stars.
Artist:
Paul
Émile Berthon (1872–1909) was a French artist who produced primarily
posters and lithographs. Berthon's work is in the style of Art Nouveau,
much like his contemporary Alphonse Mucha. Berthon studied as a painter
in Villefranche before moving to Paris. He later enrolled at the Ecole
Normale d'Enseignement de Dessin and received lessons from Luc-Olivier
Merson. His study of the decorative arts influenced his print making,
influencing the strong lines and natural details that guided his art.
The vast majority of Berthon's lithographed posters did not include
advertisements and were meant to stand on their own.
Advertising:
Salon des Cent ("Salon of the One Hundred") was a commercial art
exhibition in Paris, based at 31 Rue Bonaparte. The Salon sold color
posters, prints and reproductions of artwork to the general public at
reasonable prices. It was established in February 1894 by Léon
Deschamps, founder of La Plume ("The Pen") an avant garde literary and
artistic magazine. It became known for its exhibitions showcasing the
works of contemporary graphical artists. The salon held exhibitions
until 1900. Many of the posters advertising Salon des Cent exhibitions
have themselves become collectors' items.
Alphonse Mucha
(1860 – 1939), was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist,
known best for his distinct style. He produced many paintings,
illustrations, advertisements, postcards, and designs. His Art Nouveau
style was often imitated. The Art Nouveau style however, was one that
Mucha attempted to disassociate himself from throughout his life; he
always insisted that rather than maintaining any fashionable stylistic
form, his paintings were entirely a product of himself and Czech art.
In this serie, "the Times of the Day" (1899), Mucha combined fresh yet
delicate colours with exuberant floral motifs. Each woman is set within
natural surroundings which reflects her mood. The whole is then enclosed
in an elaborate ornamental frame reminiscent of a Gothic window.
PAUL COLIN (27 June 1892 in Nancy, France - 18 June 1985 in Nogent-sur-Marne) was one of France’s greatest poster artists. Made
famous in 1925 by his poster for the Revue Nègre, which helped to
launch the career of Josephine Baker (who became his mistress), he
worked for over forty years in the theatre, creating not only posters
but also numerous sets and costumes. Very Art déco at the outset,
(his Le Tumulte noir is a masterpiece of the genre), his style quickly
became highly personal and impossible to categorize: the synthetic
accuracy of his portraits, the evocative force of his posters for grand
causes so marked him as a master of visual communication that his work
today remains relevant and fresh. A student of Eugène Vallin and of
Victor Prouvé, he is considered a master of the modern school of poster
art. He is the author of over 1400 posters and many theatrical set and
costume designs.
JOSEPHINE
BAKER (1906 – 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer, and
actress. Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, she
became a citizen of France in 1937. Fluent in both English and French,
Baker became an international musical and political icon. She was given
such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole
Goddess". Baker was the first African American female to star in a
major motion picture, Zouzou, to integrate an American concert hall, and
to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her
contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was
offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King
in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned
it down), for assisting the French Resistance during World War II, and
for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military
honor, the Croix de guerre.
This "Bourjois" poster is one of my absolute favorite !
The image is so romantic: the man and the woman about to kiss, the Eiffel Tower on the background, the sunset colors, everything !
There are two others posters by the same artist, Pierre-Laurent Brenot, advertising the Bourjois perfume.
Available here.
Pierre-Laurent Brenot (8
July 1913 – 8 May 1998), was a French painter who also had a great
activity in fashion and advertising. He is also known as the father of
the "French pin-up".
I had the idea since a while. It took me a long time to find a way to create it.
Each
listing is for one custom silhouette print using a painting by Alphonse
Mucha (1897). The pictures above are only examples of what you could
get.
Launching DISCOUNT : 80% OFF this friday and saturday COUPON CODE: MYMUCHA
You will have to send me a profile picture of the subject. I will then start to work on your print on photoshop.
I will change:
- the profile line
- nostrill
- mouth
I will first send it to you via e-mail for final review, and then print and send it within 3 - 5 days.
An unrecorded lithographic poster for Rosinette, Absinthe Rosé Oxygénée, printed by Camis around 1900. This is the only know
historical reference to a rosé absinthe.
Absinthe
is historically described as a distilled, highly alcoholic beverage and
is commonly referred to in historical literature as "la fée verte" (the
green fairy). Absinthe arose to
great popularity as an alcoholic drink in late 19th- and early
20th-century France, particularly among Parisian artists and writers.
Owing in part to its association with bohemian culture, the consumption
of absinthe was opposed by social conservatives and prohibitionists.
Leonetto Cappiello (1875 – 1942) was an Italian poster art designer who
lived in Paris. He is now often called 'the father of modern
advertising' because of his innovation in poster design. The early
advertising poster was characterized by a painterly quality as evidenced
by early poster artists Jules Chéret, Alfred Choubrac and Hugo D'Alesi.
Cappiello, like other young artists, worked in way that was almost the
opposite of his predecessors. He was the first poster artist to use bold
figures popping out of black backgrounds, a startling contrast to the
posters early norm.
This poster, created around 1900-1910, is an
advertisement for the "papier à cigarettes" (cigarette rolling paper).
The elephant is an exotic symbol of Africa and Egypt, the country of the
Nil river. Exotic symbols were very used during the colonial times of
the Belle Epoque.
I've just found more than 50 Byrrh advertisements by Georges Léonnec !
I do not know if they are famous in the USA but they are in France.
They are already available in my Etsy shop: http://etsy.me/1brmNgc
Byrrh
is a wine-based apéritif made of red wine, mistelle, and quinine.
Created in 1866, it was popular as a French apéritif. With its marketing
and reputation as a "hygienic drink", Byrrh sold well in the early 20th
century. In the 1930s, Byrrh had 50% of the "aperitif" market share in
France.
BYRRH Factory
The Story:
Brothers Pallade and Simon Violet,
itinerant drapers, decided to take advantage of the wine fever in the
region to develop an apéritif wine flavored with cinchona. They mixed
dry wines and mistelles and initially marketed the resulting product as a
health drink or tonic. This was because the local apéritif producers
were displeased about competition with their established brands.
Rebranding the brothers' aperitif as a health drink got around this
problem, and Byrrh was sold in pharmacies.
The
Second World War initiated the decline of Byrrh. Aided by tax benefits,
natural sweet wines such as Banyuls, Muscat de Frontignan, and
Rivesaltes superseded Byrrh, which went out of fashion.
In
1977, the family business, divided by strife, was acquired by
Pernod-Ricard. Pernod-Ricard still makes the drink at its facility in
Thuir near Perpignan, part of which was designed by Gustave Eiffel.
Advertisements
for Byrrh are often visible in older French films or in films set in
the France of the past. One example is François Truffaut's Shoot the
Piano Player (1960), or the 1970 World War II comedy Kelly's Heroes.
Mad
Men Season 4, episode 6 ("Waldorf Stories") featured a Byrhh
advertisement that won a CLIO Award in April 1965. AV Club Reviewer
Keith Phipps notes: "One of the other Clios went to Byrrh, a wine-based
aperitif whose failure to catch fire in America illustrates that even
great advertising can’t sell something people don’t want."
BYRRH in Mad Men
The most famous Byrrh advertisements were created by Georges Léonnec.
Georges Léonnec
(1881 – 1940), the brother of the novelist Félix Léonnec, began his
career as a cartoonist selling drawings to newspapers in 1899. After
participating in World War I he worked as an illustrator for the
magazine La Vie Parisienne. He worked for several other publications
including Fantasio and Le Sourire. He was also well known for his
advertising illustrations for Byrrh apéritif wine, Dufayel department
stores, and the Casino of Paris.
This is just a few of the ads available in the shop: http://etsy.me/1brmNgc
The ads are true vintage ads from the 30s, not recent reprint !
This is the 2nd post about Paris seen by American movies!
If you love Paris and specially Paris during the Roaring Twenties and the Belle Epoque. You definitively want to see this one !
I
do not want to give you too many informations about the movie, because
it might spoil you the surprise. But I still want to introduce you some
of the characters. (If you don't want to know, do not read! ;) )
In this movie you'll meet several American writers and artists from the 20s, living in Paris at that time:
Zelda and F.Scott Fitzgerald
(by Alison Pill and Tom Hiddleston). F.Scott is an American author of
novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigmatic writings of
the Jazz Age. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American
writers of the 20th century. (by the way, he's the one who wrote "The
Great Gatsby"!)
Ernest Hemingway
(by Corey Stoll) was an American author and journalist. His economical
and understated style had a strong influence on 20th century fiction,
while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later
generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s
and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He
published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction
works. His most famous work is "The Old Man and the Sea".
In
1921 he married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives. The
couple moved to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent, and
fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the
1920s "Lost Generation" expatriate community.
Pablo Picasso (by Marcial dy Fonzo Bo) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and
stage
designer who spent most of his adult life in France. As one of the
greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is widely
known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed
sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of
styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works
are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), and Guernica
(1937), a portrayal of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish
Civil War.
Salvador Dalí
(by Adrien Brody) (his real name is Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto
Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marqués de Dalí de Pubol (!)). He was a prominent
Spanish
surrealist painter born in Figueres, in the Catalonia region of Spain.
Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre
images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed
to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, The
Persistence of Memory, was completed in 1931. Dalí's expansive artistic
repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration
with a range of artists in a variety of media.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (by Vincent Menjou Cortes) and Edgar Degas (by François Rostain). Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 – 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and
illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of
Paris in the late 1800s yielded a collection of exciting, elegant and
provocative images of the modern and sometimes decadent life of those
times. Toulouse-Lautrec is known along with Cézanne, Van Gogh, and
Gauguin as one of the greatest painters of the Post-Impressionist
period. Edgar Degas,
born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas; 19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917)
was a French artist famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints, and
drawings. He is especially identified with the subject of dance; more
than half of his works depict dancers. He is regarded as one of the
founders of Impressionism, although he rejected the term, and preferred
to be called a realist.
Jules Chéret (1836 – 1932) was a French painter and lithographer who
became a master of Belle Époque poster art. He has been called the
father of the modern poster.
