The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-01-15
AMERICAN POSTERS.
PICTURES IN WHICH THIS COUNTRY
LEADS THE WORLD.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Growth OF Lithography and Its Rela-
tlon 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-
ings, 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 dong
upon them would have elOgged up and be-
come a great blot The old fashioned poster
picture was always wood cut and was
always coarse and rude.
With the advent Of lithography into the
business not only artistic drawing but brii-
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 a 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 q looking glass reflects a 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 Uartoonists
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
lithography. Europe, however, was rich
treasury of clever craftsmen and color
lists, who were trained to lithOgraphic work.
To 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 photographic 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 as the
enterprise and judgment that led up to it..
! So American is our poster, in fact, that to-
day the most attractive fence and wall ad-
| yertising done in London, Paris, Madrid
and Berlin is printed in Cincinnati and New
York. It 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 curious
| circumstance that the same artist who in
Paris turned out an artistic but old fash
| ioned, unattractiye little placard now sends
from America to the same Paris frm the
stunning showy, 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 mateSlals and machinery. They give
cut the figure work to the figure men, the
lettering to the best designers, the color
work to the men whose skin as colorists
has attracted wide attention. They pay
good wages. There are poster artists who
are getting $4,000 year, or perhaps more
than any painter or illustrator on any mag
azine or in any studio in this city,