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CHAPTER X.

That the picture poster was an incident of the ancient civilizations of China and Japan goes without saying. The scope, however, of this book does not embrace the Far East; the illustrated placard in the Orient would, indeed, be a subject in itself. In the matter of applied art it is difficult to conceive anything which the Chinese and the Japanese have not attempted. They seem, from the earliest days, to have been consumed with a passion for decoration; nothing which by any chance admitted of ornament was left underrated. It behoves the societies which are formed for the purpose of illustrating the artistic antiquities of these wonderful countries to concern themselves with the dawn and history of the pictorial poster in the East. Certain it is that the illustrated advertisement abounded, as it abounds today, in the cities of both the nations now being discussed. It is, indeed, found in the less advanced civilization of Burma, and of ​the various principalities which form our Indian Empire. To pass from Asia to Spain is to travel a long way. In Spain, at the present moment, the illustrated placard is receiving no small attention at the hands of artists who, however discouraged and ill-paid, are determined to do all that in them lies to raise the country which produced Murillo to the position she once held among art-producing nations. A recent writer in the "Sketch" grows enthusiastic over the Spanish affiche. "Spanish posters," he tells us, "are a delight. Well drawn, vividly but truly coloured, and perfectly printed, they shine down from walls and hoardings, attracting all passers-by. They depict the glories of coming fairs and bull-fights, and are couched in terms calculated to draw money from a stone. The announcement that a famous matador will kill, or assist to kill, Seis Escogidos Toros, throws the Spanish reader into a state of frenzy. Not infrequently some incident is depicted with frank realism. A bull standing over a dead horse gives an opportunity to the artist to draw the unfortunate horse disembowelled and lying on blood-stained sand, while the bull's hide shows the marks of the lance-thrusts, and his horns are likewise stained with blood. Colour-printing is so good in these regions of perpetual sunlight that nearly every detail of a matador's costume can be given. The poster artists are splendid when they depict ​ ​ ​

​movement; they are satisfactory in their purely decorative work, but figures in repose are apt to become 'woodeny.' In point of colour, Spain beats France; and as France is so much in advance of England, it scarcely needs a Euclid to demonstrate that English posters cannot be compared to those of Spain. The latter exhibit at times an admirable sense of distance and proportion, which serves to show that their designers learnt to draw before they began to paint." The four examples reproduced here will serve to indicate the type of Spanish poster most frequently met with. Whether Spain, in the matter of the pictorial placard, is in advance of France or not, is a question of taste. However brilliant the colour of the Spanish affiche, the design seems to me to lack boldness. Take, for example, the "Gran Feria de Cordoba, 1895;" in this case the whole thing appears to be a series of elaborate details rather than a bold and impressive design. The poster in Spain, however, is rapidly becoming of interest, dealing as it does with fascinating and essentially picturesque subjects. It is difficult to obtain exact information concerning the artists who design posters in Spain; the examples which I reproduce here, I cannot attribute to anybody with any degree of certainty.

The Teutonic temperament is in no sense akin to the Spanish, and the pictorial posters ​of Germany are utterly unlike those of Spain. For the most part the Germans have, in the past, been addicted to elaborate and often admirably-executed lithographs, such, for instance, as that done by Ernest Klint for the Musical and Theatrical Exhibition held at Vienna in 1892. A new movement is, it appears, making itself conspicuous just now. The younger generation of German designers seem to be as anxious to experiment in the making of posters as those of France and England. Joseph Sattler, a designer of considerable originality and great dexterity, who has studied Albrecht Dürer with great advantage to his own work, has designed a very curious little window bill to advertise "Pan." It is reproduced here, and its strange individuality, its ingenuity, will not fail to make an impression upon those who look at it closely. The lettering is devised in an extraordinary way, and Sattler may be congratulated on the results of an interesting experiment. Very different to the work of Sattler is that of Franz Stück. This represents a classical head in mosaic, and advertises an exhibition of the Munich Secessionists, a body of experimental painters and designers of rapidly-growing importance. The tendency of the illustrated poster in Austria is much the same as it is in Germany. Some admirable bills have been designed in Italy. Of its particular kind, I have seen few things better than a large and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​sombre poster to advertise Verdi's "Otello." At the same time, the Italian posters are not of a very distinctive type, nor does Italian taste concerning them appear to be very fastidious. The crude, enormous, and vulgar advertisements for Buffalo Bill's exhibition created quite a sensation in Rome when that redoubtable personage deigned to visit the most august of European capitals. The modern Romans forgot their Michael Angelo in the ecstasy induced by the latest enormity of the American colour printer. It may be noted that some of the posters done for the Italian railway companies are bright and gay as an Italian summer itself. The pictorial poster would not seem to have taken a great hold on Russia, nor, judging from a comparatively recent visit, has it made much headway in Scandinavia. In Holland, the present artistic vitality and enterprise of which are at once so astonishing and gratifying, one meets with very few posters of conspicuous merit. In Belgium, on the other hand, there are signs that the poster movement has affected not a few artists of distinction. The placard by Evenepoel, designed to advertise a publication in connection with the Antwerp Exhibition, is excellent in colour and pattern and most decidedly original, owing very little to any foreign examples. Duyck's "Cortège des Fleurs (Ville de Bruxelles)" is decorative and pleasing. This artist has also designed another placard to advertise Spa (Ferme de ​Frahinfaz). To Delville we owe a curious little placard, in the Symbolist manner, which advertised "Pour l'art, I^er exposition à Bruxelles;" the advertisement for the second exhibition was the work of Ottevaere. A fantastic and rather picturesque poster was done to announce one of the annual exhibitions of "La Libre Esthetique." It represents a strange-looking human being standing among flowers, under a lurid sky, and holding in his hands a decorative scroll, upon which the legend is inscribed. Amongst other interesting Belgian placards are the "Velodrome Bruxellois" by G. Gaudy, the "Paul Hankar" by A. Crespin, and a poster in monochrome in imitation of a bas-relief bearing the legend "La plus noble force sociale est le Droit." All of these are reproduced here. It may be noted in conclusion that most of the Belgian posters show strong signs of French influence. ​ ​ ​