POSTER ART. Posters are a modem field for the artist, having been developed within the last 50 years, along with advertising art. They are usually conventional in form and any degree of exaggeration is permissible, if it at tracts attention. The earliest example of the poster dates back to the days of Pompeian splendor. During the Middle Ages managers of theatres and officers recruiting for the army used pictorial advertisements. From these pictures, Jules Cheret of Paris (b. 1836), called the father of the modern poster, is said to have received his first suggestion of the possibility of adopting art to latter-day advertising. One of his first efforts was an announcement of a fairy play, (La Biche au Bois,) in which Sarah Bernhardt was acting in 1867. Cheret's prin ciples were conventionality, elimination of de tail, arrangement and pure color. For a long time he was almost alone in his efforts and did not attain to the pre-eminence that has come in more recent years.
In order to produce a good advertising placard it must command the attention of the public. It should be attractive to the man in the street without being vulgar; sufficiently startling, but not aggressively so. Jules Cheret understood the requisites and limitations of this kind of art better than any other of his time and his work gained for him a world-wide reputation. He can justly lay claim to founding a new school. He has defined his idea of a perfect poster as follows: gIt should be as simple as possible and I consider the introduc tion of one figure —and need I hardly say that of a lady for choice—is indispensable; whenever it is possible this figure should be life-size. My own posters are never smaller than 60 centimeters (two feet) by 86 (nearly three feet) and my favorite size is 250 by 90; the figure should of course, be elegantly i and brightly dressed in some striking costume not likely to go out of fashion as long as the poster is to be in use. I always make a point of designing the lettering of the actual advertisements. I do not believe in black and white letters, but have no objection to their being very dark red or violet; this produces the effect of lack without giving a jarring note.) Close rivals to Claret are Grasset and Stein len and by some critics the two are considered to be in many respects superior to the. master.
Eugene Grasset, a native of Switzerland, is a decorator and architect by profession. His work is characterized by a vital principle of design effective yet subdued. His Napoleon and Jeanne d'Arc (Bernhardt) posters are super creations. Grasser's work is always re fined and harmoniolis, yet less bright and strik ing than Cherees. There is more repose and it appeals more to the artist than to the public. The poster of the Salon des Cent in its tender ness, its exquisite lines and its spirituality, is worthy of Rossetti.
Of the other French artists De Feure, Guil-' laume, Ibels, Boutet de Monvel, Stein len, Willette and Jossot are perhaps the most accomplished. Bossot is a great artist, es sentially a caricaturist, who works with vaga bond and artistic lines and in a morbid color scheme — rusty greens and pale yellows. Stein len is every way a charming artist. His Pur Sterilisi," a child in a red dress drinking from a bowl, envied by three eager tabby cats, is perhaps one of the most attractive posters ever made. Lautrec has not the refinement of Grasset, not the sprightliness of Cheret, yet he possesses an individuality which makes his work peculiarly interesting. His posters are gen erally simple in composition and depend to a great extent for their effectiveness on the skil ful arrangement of masses. Ibels is remark ably clever in drawings that are inimitably and effectively grotesque. Aristide Bruant has done some things that are strikingly forcible in their broad masses of color. In Great Britain, Audrey Beardsley and Walter Crane were early ex perts in the new art. They have been worthily followed by Gordon Craig, Will Owen, Hardy, Simpson, Bell and others.
In the United States the modern poster artists include Louis J. Rhead, Will H. Bradley, Kenyon Cox, W. H. Carqueville, Edward Pen field, Ethel Reed, A. Friedler, Walter Fawcett, Max Parrish, Hy Mayer, Hamilton King, Clar ence Tilt, E. Haskell, etc. The war brought forth a great demand for inspiring patriotic posters and many new men entered the ranks. By long odds the most successful of these war posters was a picture of a Red Cross nurse with a miniature wounded soldier in her arms and the inscription °The Greatest Mother in the this being by A. E Foringer.