Jack Wood Gallery seeks to maintain a representative selection of works by the major poster artists from all countries and schools of design. A bit of biographical detail on some such artists follows. Please inquire as to reference works on any of them as we do carry a good number of titles in stock on several artists.
WILL BRADLEY (1868-1962)-The foremost exponent of Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts in America, Bradley was well-versed in all aspects of graphic arts: illustration, lithography, printing, and poster design. After working for journals including The Inland Printer, St. Nicholas, The Chap Book, and The Century, he started his own publishing venture, Bradley--His Book. In later years he became art director for The Century, Collier's, and Good Housekeeping. Decorative borders executed with minute care and precision, usually based on natural patterns characterize his work.
LEONETTO CAPPIELLO (1875-1942)-A native of Livorno, Italy, this fine caricaturist came to Paris as a young man and liked the artistic atmosphere enough to settle there. He created something of a revolution with his simple linear approach and flat colors, ending the era of Art Nouveau's painstaking attention to detail and elaborate ornamentation. What his posters lacked in depth they more than made up for in showiness: exaggerations that rivet the eye to an absurd or incongruous feature which then leads to the advertising message. Most posters of the 1890s work leisurely; Cappiello intuitively recognized that with so many images competing for attention, the future in advertising would belong to whoever could deliver a quick punch and outshout the others. The new century's marketing strategies were to develop a whole new dynamism--and Cappiello started it all with a bang.
JULES CHERET (1863-1932)-Born in Paris, Cheret was sent to work as a printer's apprentice at age 13. Mastering the skills of lithography, still a crude and expensive printing technique, he refined and simplified the process until it finally became an economically feasible way of producing posters in color. After honing his talent in London, where lithography was at a more advanced stage, he returned to Paris and started creating posters, mainly for the stage, full of sprightly, lightly-dressed damsels entirely at odds with the stodgy, static poster designs prevailing at the time. He created a virtual marketing revolution: On formerly gray Paris streets posters now dazzled passers-by with a profusion of dynamic images and bright colors. Cheret may not have been the first to discover that the image of a pretty girl will sell anything, but he certainly practiced the art assiduously, confirming its truth to all who followed. Prolific as well as successful, he prepared some 1,000 posters between 1858 and the first decade of the 20th century.
ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939)-Born in a small town in Moravia which, at the time, was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later became part of independent Czechoslovakia, Mucha grew up in an environment where the only available artwork could be seen in churches. But when he accepted a job in Vienna to paint scenery for a theater, he came into contact with fine-art circles and determined to join them. After studies in Munich and Paris, financed by a rich patron, he settled down in the French capital to produce a prodigious number of graphic works, mainly posters. He took the principles of Art Nouveau to greater heights than anyone before or after him, becoming virtually synonymous with the movement. His fame was greatly abetted by ardent supporters: publisher Leon Deschamps whose magazine La Plume tirelessly publicized his work; printer F. Champenois who reaped profits by marketing his work both to commercial clients and individual buyers; and Sarah Bernhardt who championed him in high society. More than 90 percent of Mucha's designs feature women, usually idealized and portrayed wearing exquisite gowns and jewelry, often against an ornamental background that functions as a halo. After visiting the U.S. for a time, Mucha returned permanently to this home country in 1910 and devoted himself to painting on nationalistic themes.
EDWARD PENFIELD (1866-1925)- Throughout the 1890s Penfield was closely associated with Harper's magazine, acting as art director and designing store placards to advertise the publication's monthly issues. His drawings are straightforward, executed with an economy of line and color; yet their seeming simplicity masks insinuating designs with a pervasive message: The magazine is read by the young, elegant set that is worth emulating. After leaving Harper's, Penfield created product posters using the same technique.
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