History of the Poster

First there was the town crier, literally a "walking newspaper." His role was critical: singing out on every corner the latest news, announcing events of public interest, keeping the people informed of everything from burials, weddings, goods for sale, lost objects, and anything of interest. The town crier became outmoded with the advent of printing around 1500 - one of the greatest events in history. Printing made reading and writing spread rapidly, as we turned the page from a word-of-mouth society to one based on text, typography, and the written word. Text announcements, newspapers, and early posters replaced the town crier. Jean-Michel Papillon was one of the first poster artists; his work can be tracked through his signature. In time posters became quite official, requiring approvals, stamps, taxes. Quickly the poster emerged not only as an effective way to announce political events and news items, but also to inform the public about the availability of commercial products. Thus was advertising born.

For a couple hundred years posters were hand-written or hand-printed by artisans, perhaps with descriptive and explanatory diagrams added. They could be laborious and time-consuming to create. In 1798 the printing process known as lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder, at the time an impoverished German actor and playwright. Senefelder came up with the idea of making printers' plates out of limestone. Printing was done by placing ink on a series of stone carvings which are really reliefs of color areas on the poster.

Now prints could be done quickly and cheaply, as materials could be used over and over with no ill effect on the quality of the prints produced. This allowed for the mass production of all shapes and sizes of posters. Effective posters used simple shapes, bright colors, and large designs to be easily discerned at a distance. Jules Cheret, a French painter, was the first to exploit this new art form. By 1866 he had produced 1,000 large colorful posters, rightfully earning him the title of the "Father of the Poster."

During the 1890s in Europe the use of lithography exploded. Artists loved the immediacy and novelty of the method. With so many new disciplines - Realism, Naturalism, Impressionism, Japonisme, Intimism - challenging the stodgy and outmoded art standards of the day, artists found lithography a fresh and exciting alternative to painting. They developed lithography as a way to rebel against the overbearing Salon that refused to show their work. Lithography developed in two formats: commercial (used as posters, publication covers, book illustrations), and as the fine art form of hand-printmaking. French artists like Bonnard, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vollard made countless striking and beautiful lithograph prints and posters. The posters announced everything from consumer goods to nightclubs. In this time period, the poster enjoyed a heyday never seen before or since. The poster became an innovative art form in its own right.

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