The History of The Poster

The Early Days

The first Posters to have made an appearance in public can be traced as far back as the 15th century. They were used as a means of making public announcements and proclamations from the King. Under Franois I, town criers were no longer used to announce edicts from the King, Church or Brotherhood. Rather, Posters were fixed to billboards as a means of making important royal announcements to the populace.

The earliest Poster that can be traced from its signature is that of Jean-Michel Papillon. The French theoretician is credited with being the first Poster designer and the inventor of wallpaper. He engraved rustic designs into woodwork in continuous, matching patterns as early as 1675.

The Posters at this time suffered from very slow development. This was due to the painstaking process of Poster production. Artisans had to engrave the Poster into woodwork or metal sheets by hand, with little or no design and color.

It wa s until the birth of the Lithographic Printing that Posters made their foray into mass media.

The Lithographic Revolution

1789 maybe more known as the year of the French revolution, but for a Poster history buff it is just as important a historical date. It is the birth of Lithographic Printing, which ushered in a new in Poster publishing.

Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder in Austria. It consisted of a series of lithos, metal or stone carvings, which are tinted with ink to make a Print. The mechanized process of Lithography meant that Posters in all sizes and shapes could be implemented and produced in large numbers.

Posters were soon embraced by the mass media and used for promotional purposes in France and throughout Europe. Newspapers displayed Printed advertisements, theatre and opera shows in Paris started running Poster advertisements to announce important events and soon enough publishers and writers followed suite. The likes of Hugo, Balzac and Dumas partnered with great Lithographic designers like Raffet, Gavarni and Johannot to illustrate some of the most acclaimed masterpieces of French 19th literary works.

The Father of the Poster

Despite the major strides in graphic art Printing and production since the advent of photography, Posters remained part and parcel of pictorial arts. This all changed in 1867, thanks to the vision of a simple French artisan called Jules Cheret.

Cheret saw the potential of the Poster as an advertising and promotional medium and sought to give it an artistic imagery separate from other arts. His Parisian Printing shop produced the first commercial art Poster, called La Biche au Bois, to promote the popular comedy Bal Valentino.

But it is not only giving Posters a separate artistic identity that gave Cheret the nickname Father of the Poster . He also made huge contributions in the fields of Printing and design techniques to make Posters a remarkable innovation in the period. He improved on the existing Lithographic techniques by introducing the three stone Lithographic process in Printing. The three stones which refer to the three colors: yellow, blue and red made it possible to combine color and texture with images and text. Color Poster Printing in volume was not only possible, but aesthetic and economical at the same time.

Cheret went on to produce Posters in mass throughout his illustrious career. His innovation influenced future prominent Poster artists, such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Edouard Manet, and ushered in the new era of the art Poster as we know it today: a powerful communications and advertising medium.

John Riches is a staff writer at PosterSteals.com a leading comparison shopping engine that allows you to compare prices for Posters, Prints and Artwork across various online stores.

Author:: John Riches
Keywords:: art Posters,Posters,Prints,Photos,framed art,Poster,Print,fine art,Artwork,art work,Lithograph
Post by History of the Computer | Computer safety tips