Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1894-11-08
AMERICAN POSTERS.
PICTURES IN WHICH THIS COUNTRY
LEADS THE WORLD.

The Growth Of Lithography and Its Rela-
tion to the Art of Advertising Theatrical
Attractions-How the Business Has Been
Built Up.
The American poster has utterly changed .
It's standing since the printers have been
producing their work by lithography. 1t
has become an artistic creation. Wood .
cuts may be as fine and delicate as etch-
lngs, but in poster work they depended on
their coarseness. They needed to be bold .
and conspicuous, and the printing of them
required such great amount of ink that
any fine work that might have been done
upon them would have clogged up and be- |
come great blot The old fashioned poster
picture was always a wood cut and was
always coarse and rude.
With the advent of lithography into the
business not only artistic drawing but bril-
liant color effects became possible. The
Americans found few artists here who were
accustomed to the work. There were ia.
nous painters who were mastery in their
use of colors, but it was not possible to en-
ploy them in calling that had not then
attracted wide attention and that in all
probability never will rank nearer than
cousinship to high art. Moreover, lithog.
raphy is science by itself. 1t does not
permit the execution of the design that is
aimed at. 1t requires the artist to reach
an effect indirectly by drawing a picture
as looking glass reflects figure, with the
right side Of the stone making the left side
of the finished work. The best artists who
have mastered this trick are the cartoonists
upon the leading weekly papers that pro
duce pictures in colors.
The number Of men who were competant
to produce the American poster of today
was very small when the printers took up
photography. Europe, however, was n rich
treasury of clever craftsmen and color
lists, who were trained to photographic work.
10 Europe the American poster printers
went for their talent, and the consequence
has been that today the leading poster art
lists in this country are nearly all Euro
peans. They are Frenchmen, Germans and
Russians. They have been imported in
this country as fast as they have attracted
attention in their own capitals, and the
custom of recruiting their ranks with men
of their own nationalities still goes on
The American poster Is, therefore, in one
sense foreign product. The artists, the
process, the lithographic stones all are
brought from abroad Even some of the
paper in use on the dead walls of the coun-
try, though made here, is manufactured of
fiber that is imported.
But the finished product of this foreign
combination is as truly American us the
enterprise and Judgment that led up to it.
So American is our poster, in fact, that to.
Il fl,,,, ptt ,,n al
vertising done in London, Paris, Madrid
and Berlin is printed in Cincinnati and New
York. 1t is not merely the Barnum circus,
the Kiralfy spectacle or the series of Yam
kee patent medicines that are thus exploit
ed abroad. The Europeans themselves send
here to get their posters 1t is n curious
circumstance that the same artist who in
Paris turned out an artistic but old fash.
ioned, unattractive little placard now sends
| from America to the same Paris firm the
stunning, snowy, beautiful designs that are
everywhere classified as American.
There are no secrets in the making of the
! new style poster except that the biggest,
most successful printers are those that EN-.
ploy the best talent, show the most enter
| prise and spend the most money for the
best materials and machinery. They give
out the figure work to the figure men, the
| lettering to the best designers, the color
work to the men whose skill as colorists
has attracted wide attention. They pay
good wages. There are poster artists who
are getting S15, 600 Il year, or perhaps more
than any painter or illustrator on any mag
azine or in any studio in this city.
The fidelity of the lilienesses to the
originals in the theatrical bills is due to
photography. There are no portrait paint
ers in the new poster shops. The actor or
actress who is to be portrayed-as in the
case Of the famous portraits of Mr.. Crane
as the Senator and Johnstone Bennett as
Jane-were if they are like the rest of their
kind, photographed up to the required size
and then the photograph was used as the
basis Of the drawing or painting Effective
scenes and situations are seen by the artist
in the same way that any spectator in an
orchestra chair sees them, except that the
actors and actresses often pose for him
alone, and their photographs are carried
away by him in his notebook.
1t has been said that nearly all the lead
ing poster artists are foreigners. 1t is true
therefore that II few are Americans. One
of the very best of them, whose figure work
attracted wide attention, was n Mr.. Crane,
who until lately lived and worked in this
city, and there are now in town at least
two other first class figure men, who, like
half dozen famous painters and illus
traitors, graduated from the art depart
ment of the now defunct Daily Graphic.
To step aside from the actual poster, there
are found in the workshops of the great
bank note companies other Americans, en-
ployed as designers in the main. The good
work done on our dead walls has wrested
praise from the men who are engaged in
the higher lines of artist industry. 1t was
at dinner to Henry L. Abbey, when the
best artists in the country were present, a
couple of years ago, that toast was drunk
to the American poster. With no un
healthy prejudice to break down, and in
view of the money that the printers are
spending it is safe to predict that Amer,
leans will contribute more and more to the
glory and success of our poster until at
last it will be American in fact, from its
ink surface to the paste on its back, with
all which that implies. York Sun
Race Track Slang In Legislature.
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