Belle Epoque Posters

The "Beautiful Era" stands as the literal English-to-French translation of this historical heading. And beautiful is its art.

Originating in Paris city streets, a golden, guilded age of art, invention, industrialization, and social change arises. France and the rest of Europe reach a harmonious resonance, after successive eras of tumult and war. The Belle Epoque is a time of European cultural decadence and intellectual and artistic renaissance. The Belle Epoque dates from around 1890 to 1914, and, unfortunately, dies with the rise of fascism during World War I.

Considering that war antecedes and succeeds the Belle Epoque, and industrialization is on the rise, the poster artists choose subjects mostly not reflected in previous art periods. A rift between the aristocracy and the underclass/the Left and the Right creates a similar divide in artistic choices. Belle Epoque posters depict the celebratory life of workers, as opposed to previous portrayals of sober, subdued, and almost stoic bourgeois and aristocratic life. The gaiety and liveliness of dance halls, cabarets, street cafes, parks, urban settings, and unknown characters (mostly scenes of the Moulin Rouge) are vibrantly captured in Belle Epoque posters. With each lithographic sheet a bacchanalian of the Leftist, Socialist Parisian working-class is heightened to the same plateau as "serious" art.

Embedded in the time line of Impressionism, poster art's founding father Jules Cheret uses Impressionistic techniques to breathe life into his subjects. Cheret was not a "reproductionist" but a true originator; he did not make posters of other people's paintings (which is later done in the evolution of poster-making) but, instead, chose original and fresh street and night life scenes. If you look at a Cheret poster, you're looking at a true and singular reflection of Belle Epoque life. A Cheret poster captures, with loud color and, yet, harmony, escapism and indulgence at its most unadulterated. The lines are romantically curvilinear and geometrically jaunty. Backgrounds effortlessly blend into foregrounds. The brushstrokes all use an indefinite, blurry Impressionistic technique but do not, by any means, fail at naturalistic representation. You can clearly see exactly what he wants you to see. Despite others, such as Toulouse-Lautrec, who carry the Belle Epoque further, Jules Cheret posters initially captured the essence of this period and its people with the gift of a life-giving god.

Elsewhere, Belle Epoque posters reflect the cultural idiosyncrasies of their relative countries. For example, Dutch Belle Epoque posters tend to be pleasing but subdued and quaint, not as raucous as Parisian posters. Dutch aesthetics choose more muted colors, neat and orderly lines and layouts that are more defined, symmetry and balance, and restrained subject matter. German Belle Epoque posters are more severe and forward, more reminiscent of medieval glory. Italian posters are theatrical and largesse; they use large print and garish colors in melodramatic, operatic overtones. However, a comparable parallel to Parisian Belle Epoque style can be found in American and British posters that usually - coincidentally - advertise circuses and carnivals - a lively, unrestrained party scene.

Overall, no matter the artist or aesthetic, the Belle Epoque in poster art is one of many beginnings where art celebrates life - all life. It is a time where posters not only reflect "the People" but art is brought to "the People" - "art by the people for the people." These posters were not hung in galleries but plastered on buildings and windows. The masses could see themselves mirrored in profane, unfettered beauty. Belle Epoque is the beginning of democratic art, art as we now know it.