Thumbnail: poster for the exhibition L’art est dans la rue at the Orsay museum [18th of March 2025 – 6th of July 2025]. Source: https://www.boutiquesdemusees.fr/fr/products/musee-orsay/400630-art-est-dans-la-rue/?page=2
This exposition, organized by the Orsay museum in partnership with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, highlights the development of the illustrated poster during the second half the nineteenth century. It encourages a dialogue between different art forms (posters, paintings, sculptures, etc), while questioning the cultural and social factors that created the environnement that allowed the art of the poster to prosper.
André Devambez, La Charge, around 1902, oil on canvas, Paris, musée d’Orsay
It is Devambez’s use of space that first drew my attention to this painting, with a striking contrast between the empty center and the crowded borders, full of people, action, and life. Our gaze initially falls on the calm, silent middle of the composition, before we become aware of the chaos unfolding all around it. This contrast produces a sense of surprise in the viewer, a feeling
that likely echoes the crowd’s own emotions.
Light also plays an important role. This work, titled La Charge (“the charge” or “the stampede”), seems to by trying to draw our attention toward the line of armed men, facing the disorganized crowd that is fleeing toward the bottom of the canvas. However, the viewer’s eye is irresistibly drawn away from the confrontation, toward the colorful posters and lit storefronts. The exhibition catalogue cites 19th‑century thinkers who saw in the rise of illustrated advertising posters a modern plague, forcing bright images onto already overburdened spirits.
Anonyme, imprimerie Rouchon (Paris), Agrandissements considérables. Aux enfans [sic] d’Édouard 115, rue du Temple, 1858, woodcut in color, Paris, BnF
This poster reproduces the composition of Paul Delaroche’s Les Enfants d’Edouard, painted twenty‑eight years earlier, in 1830. I like this poster because it highlights a new proximity between two artistic media, each undergoing profound transformation.
On one hand, because of its medium, the poster embodies a technical revolution, driven by advances in engraving and printing and by the emergence of the poster as a new means of communication. On the other hand, its composition, inspired by Delaroche’s work, reflects the aesthetic upheaval taking place in 19th‑century painting. Delaroche’s painting belongs to the Troubadour style, a precursor to a more colorful, tormented
Romanticism, that breaks the sober, antique codes of Neoclassicism. This poster thus showcases a budding new medium which, perhaps to reinforce its legitimacy, draws on the visual repertoire of more established arts such as painting.
– Alphonse Mucha, Gismonda. Sarah Bernhardt. Théâtre de la Renaissance, 1895, color lithography, Paris, BnF
– Alphonse Mucha, La Dame aux Camélias. Sarah Bernhardt. Théâtre de la Renaissance, 1899, color lithography, Paris, BnF
– Alphonse Mucha, Médée. Théâtre de la Renaissance. Sarah Bernhardt, 1898, color lithography, Paris, BnF
I really enjoyed this series of lithographs especially for their pastel tones, which set them apart from other contemporary posters, often characterized by more saturated colors. Here, the shades are soft and come together in harmonious palettes. This is the case for Gismonda, with its light shades of blues and greens. The metallic highlights in La Dame aux Camélias give the work an almost fairy‑like quality, complemented by the softness of the woman’s features. As for Médée, it stands out for its theatrical intensity, giving the viewer the impression of witnessing a dramatic scene suspended in time. These aspects, both magical and dramaturgical, undoubtedly serve a practical function: captivating the public and thus promoting the theatrical performances they advertise.
Bibliography:
DUBREUIL Elise, L’art est dans la rue: [exposition, Paris, musée d’Orsay, 18 mars – 6 juillet 2025], 2025, Paris, Musée d’Orsay, Bibliothèque nationale de France
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/agenda/expositions/lart-est-dans-la-rue
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