INTRODUCTION:
Over many years we have collected a large amount of memorabilia related to the arts, such as paintings (all media), photographs, posters, pottery (particularly very creative pieces) and music in all it's forms. We even see old technology as an art form, the skill and attention to detail in old electronic equipment is a site to behold!
Way back in time, well before Covid-19 was ravaging our planet, we visited Europe and were lucky enough to obtain some excellent French made litho poster art prints, this is one of them and MORE CAN BE FOUND HERE
Lithography became very popular in the 19th century and Paris lead the way in this print technique, where the artist worked closely with fine printers. This poster is a lithographic ART PRINT not an original lithograph! (those are very rare) and this poster is much smaller than the original.
So what is the poster all about?
These posters were created by graphic artists of the day and Paris was a leader in this artform. Art Nouveau was extensively used to promote particular events, especially the performing arts. The designs were distinctive, bold and more often than not feature women. The most well known French graphic artists of the day were: Eugène Grasset, Jules Chéret, Georges de Feure and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
I do not know who created this poster and cannot find out anything of any use online either. It is in the Art Nouveau style and is very French in nature but it appears the artist did not sign the poster, unless the comments I have made below make much sense but even if the artist was called Appel or F.Appel, I cannot find any information about such a frenchman.
The design of the poster is VERY "busy" with the designer attempting to convey a lot of information to the person reading the poster and they used colour to grab the attention of the reader.
This poster contains far more written information than say the Moulin-Rouge poster, which is much more a visual message being sent by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.
So the poster catches the eye intially, then the passer-by will hopefully read all the information contained in the poster.
Obvious this is a French language poster advertising a French (Paris) event, so lets deal with a few elements of this poster ...
The purpose of the event being promoted is to have a big party, a celebration (Grande Fete means this)
Why have a big party?
As best I can work out, Les Prévoyants de l'Avenir was a french pension fund. Then below the attention grabbing title is the words
Fete Des 10 Millions
Put the two lines together and this poster is promoting the BIG PARTY which is celebrating the 10 millionth member of the Prevoyants pension fund.
The date of the party was:
Sunday 13th August 1893 (Dimanche 13 Aout 1893)
The centrepiece (Effiel Tower) gives the approximate location of the party, it was actually held at the Field Of Mars, near the Effiel Tower (Champ de Mars) and would run through both the day and night (De Jour Et De Nuit)
So the poster is NOT all about the Effiel Tower, the use of the Effiel Tower graphic assists the reader to know where the big party is going to be held (I have seen some people online claim this poster is all about a party FOR the Effiel Tower, that is not correct)
See the numbers/text next to the tower graphic?
10 Hrs Feu Artifice
11 Hrs Embrasement de la Tour Effel
In the evening, between 10pm and 11pm the Effiel Tower will be alight with fireworks, a grand spectacular finale! (NOT as I saw one person state online about this poster, the Effiel Tower is on fire! - like the poster is promoting a horror movie! It's fireworks folks, the Tower never burns for goodness sake!)
All around the central graphic of the Effiel Tower are clever graphics related to the pension fund. The person looking out of the hot air balloon basket, towards the future (looking into the distance) and the trapesse artist hanging but being supported by the balloon, without which they would crash to the ground.
The atmosphere would have been very "circus like" with various entertainment acts, but it's NOT a circus poster - it is just advertising the sort of things you can expect to see. The various performing graphics have an air of fun and craziness about them, again promoting the "big party" atmosphere.
Over on the right hand side is:
Entree 0f.50 donnant droit a un billet de Tombola
This is the entrance fee for the big party but hey! you get a FREE Tombola ticket when you pay for your entrance. Tombola is like a lottery/raffle game played on the board, so perhaps you will get your franc back if you win the Tombola!
How much was that entry fee? The French Franc is now obsolete, having changed everything to the Euro but it would seem this 0f.50 converts to roughly 12 cents Australian.
"Les Prevoyants Del Avenia Grande Fete"
Artist or graphic designer is not known
Made In France
Lithographic Art Print
UNFRAMED (within a cello sealed protective sleeve)
Artwork dimensions: 223mm wide x 294mm height
White border is NOT the same width on all sides. Top & LH side 10mm but the Bottom is 11mm and RH side is 9mm
Stock used appears to be 250gsm (light card commonly used for art print processes)
Printed across the lower border (left hand side) is:
Musee De La Publicite
Tous Droits Reserves
Running vertically near this text is the following (indistinct though)
UTH.F.APPEL (indistinct date and one word then...) PARIS
I believe this may have been the artist/graphic designer and the print catalogue number appears to support this (AF 04) as in French, the first and last name order is usually reversed so F.APPEL could be shortened to AF xx (catalogue number)
Printed across the lower border (right hand side) is:
Editions
Artertre Paris
Made In France
AF 04
ARTWORK DETAILS:
The art print is clean, crisp with vibrant, bold colours. Close examination of the print shows no distinct "machine" pattern and with evenly distributed ink application and no mis-colouring.
This is NOT a digital print!
The art print will be supplied without a frame but it is sitting on a stiff cardboard sheet within sealed cellowrap.
For goodness sake, please, when you do frame this museum size poster do not use one of those horrible "kitset frames" made of metal or even worse, plastic! That type of frame is totally out of character with this poster!
As an idea, here is a frame that is far more suitable (we do not have any frames for sale, just "idea giving")
