The American Scene

Poster art became popular in the United States during the 1890s, mirroring similar developments in Europe during this time. As mentioned in a previous article, advances in color lithography led to improved production techniques for posters. Artists and illustrators began to deisgn posters that were used by businesses, theatrical companies and others to meet the advertising needs of their clients.

In 1893, the publisher Harper & Brothers selected the head of their own art department, Edward Penfield, to create a poster for Harper's magazine. He produced a design that while simple in concept was appealing nonetheless and represented a new approach to advertising. By the end of the year, other publishers had followed suit. Eye-catching illustration was already known as a way to increase sales, and now with the refinements in lithography, poster art rapidly became a popular means of advertising. Developments in France, as reflected in the work of Cheret, Steinlen and Toulouse-Lautrec, stimulated further interest and by the mid-1890s, poster art had become firmly established in the United States.

Many artists and illustrators turned to poster art, and soon such artists as Will Bradley, Ethel Reed, Louis Rhead, as well as Penfield and others, gained widespread acclaim for their innovative designs. Newspapers often sought such designers to create posters advertising a publication's particular features, and book publishers turned to them to design placards announcing the latest novel or short-story collection. This later led to cover designs for hardcover books, as well as designs for the paperback book industry, which developed in the 1930s.

The prominent American illustrator Edward Penfield (1866-1925) trained in New York City before becoming art director for Harper's magazine. As stated above, he created a poster in 1893 for the magazine that gained widespread attention. His critics said that he was influenced too much by the French poster artists, but his designs were uniquely American in their concept. As other observers have said, "The Harper's posters have been characterized as the distinctive graphic works of the 1890s."(Heyman) By 1900, his reputation was secure. He left Harper's the following year, and over the next two decades produced designs for magazines such as Scribner's, Collier's and the Saturday Evening Post, covers for books and designs for commercial interests, including products such as bicycles and dynamite, among others.

Nearly all of Penfield's posters for Harper's magazine have a remarkable sameness to their design -- distinguished by the name of the magazine -- most often in bold lettering -- with the letters of the particular month being arranged in a vertical or horizontal format. The central image for nearly all of his posters is a solitary figure -- most often a woman -- who is shown holding and sometimes reading a copy of the magazine. She may be sitting on a bench or perhaps in a chair or even relaxing in a boat. Animals frequently appear on the covers also, with horses being perhaps the most popular, but dogs and cats, rabbits and even chickens also appear. Other people are sometimes shown, though, and most frequently they are engaging in some sort of leisure activity. They may be walking, riding, skating or enjoying something else, but Harper's magazine is often close at hand.

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