Les Affiches Illustrees

L’Affiche Illustrees – Gallery

Les Affiches Illustrees, (1886-1895) written by Ernest Maindron with 64 original lithographic prints was published in 1896 by Imprimerie Chaix and printed by Imprimerie Eugene Verneau in Paris.

It is probably the single most important reference work in the field of poster art:
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9334871/f9.image

In the last five years of the 19th century, Imprimerie Chaix played a major role in maintaining the exuberant atmosphere of the Belle Epoque (1871-1914) with the publication of Les Maitres de l’Affiche ,a subscription series of reduced lithographic versions of over 200 top-flight posters by more than 90 prominent artists of the day. Jules Cheret, often considered father of poster art, was the artistic director of the Imprimerie Chaix firm.

Ernest Maindron (1838-1908) was a French historian and archivist, and perhaps the most visible poster aficionado and publisher during the Belle Époque. He was responsible for many high quality publications including, Les Affiches Illustrees (1896) and Les Programees Illustre: des Theatres et des Cafes-Concerts, Menus, Cartes d”Invitation, petites Estampes etc. (1897). Attached to the Institut de France, Maindron was passionate about the cultural aspects of advertising and graphic art throughout his life. From the 1880s, he devoted a good part of his research to a new way of promotional communication, the illustrated poster, and remains the first historian of his time to have raised it to an accepted art form. In collaboration with his good friend Jules Cheret, he organized an exhibition of the most well-known poster artists in Paris during the Universal Exhibition of 1889.

The following small format poster images are original lithographic prints published in the book Les Affiches Illustrees and printed by Imprimerie Chaix in 1896. The book was printed in an edition size of 1,025, which makes them highly collectable.