Cheret and Grasset

They were two working graphic artist in Paris called Jules Cheret and Eugene Grasset. They played important roles in the gradual transition from Victorian Graphics to the Art Nouveau style. In 1881, a French law concerning freedom of the press lifted many censorship restrictions, which resulted in a booming poster industry. Seeing as he was considered the father of modern posters, Jules Grasset showed the way. He was the son of an poverty-stricken typesetter. He had experience working with lithographic stones, being a lithographic craftsman and observed art at Louvre and had drawing classes as a child. He moved to London where he became a drawing artist for a furniture catalog. He was not too impressed with this and returned to Paris six months afterwards.

Cheret was convinced that pictorial graphic posters would replace the typographic letterpress posters but he could not convince the advertisers. He soon returned to London and mastered English color lithography. He was commissioned a poster of a family of clowns that he had befriended and this was the turning point in his career, leading to label commissions from the philanthropist and perfume manufacturer Eugene Rimmel. This was the start of a very long and close association and friendship that was marked by extensive design and production experience. Cheret used the finances gained from this partnership to open his own printing firm in 1866.

This printing firm was Victorian in approach and the first poster from his shop was a monochromatic design for the theatrical production La biche au bois (The Doe in the woods) starring the twenty two year old Sarah Bernhardt who was a leading actress at the time. During the 1870’s Cheret evolved away from the Victorian complexity, simplifying his designs and increasing the scale of his major figures and lettering. In 1881, he sold his company to a larger printing firm where he became the artistic director. This arrangement gave him more time for his own arts and designs.

Jules Ghèret, Poster for Orpheé aux Enfers. Cherret evolved towards larger,
more animated figures and greater unity of word and image.

Jules Chéret, poster for La biche au bois (The Doe in the Wood), 1866
Chéret's early green and black poster used the multipla images format
so popular in the 1860s. The lettering is a harbinger of the swirlin
forms marking his mature style

In1884, Cheret produced some posters that were up to 2 meters tall. His artistic influences included the idealized beauty and carefree lifestyle painting of Watteau and Fragonard, the luminous colors of Turner and the winding movement of Tiepolo, whose figures expressed energy and movement through twisting torsos and extended limbs. Cheret worked directly on stone and then gave it to a craftsman who did the stone carving.

During the 1880’s he used a black line with primary colors. This was his signature that set him apart from Grasset. He achieved a graphic vitality with these bright colors and created effects such as stipple and crosshatch, soft watercololike washes, bold calligraphic chunks of color, scratching, scraping and splattering, which were all evident in his works. His typical composition was a central figure, or figures, in animated gestures in the middle, surrounded by swirls of colors, secondary figures or props and bold lettering, all of which echoed the shapes and gestures of the figure.

The Beautiful young women he created, dubbed Cherettes by an admiring public, were archetypes not only for the idealized presentation of the woman in mass media but also for a generation of French woman who used their dress and apparent lifestyle as inspiration. One specialist dubbed Cheret “the father of woman’s liberation“ because he introduced a new role for woman in the late Victorian era. These women were neither prudes nor prostitutes. They were just self-assured happy women who enjoyed life to the fullest; who wore low cut dresses, danced, smoked and drank wine in public. Cheret preferred using a large format and motivated this by saying a well-made woman is about 150 centimeters tall thus he needed a 240-centimeter tall poster, so that he could fit in a full-scaled woman respectfully. His output ranged from life-sized images to a diminutive size.

Jules Gheret, “Élysee Montmartre Bal Masque” (Masked Ball) Poster, 1896.

Parisian elegance, a carefree grace and astounding technical mastery are present.
The figures create a lively play of angles linking the top and bottom lettering.

Cheret was named to the Legion of Honor by the French government in 1890 for creating a new branch of art that advanced printing and served the needs of commerce and industry. He died at the age of 97, after designing over a thousand posters by the turn of the century, and nearly ceased poster production to spent more time on pastels and paintings.

Grasset was Swiss born and was the first illustrator / designer to rival Cheret in public popularity. Grasset studied medieval art’s love of exotic oriental art. This was reflected strongly in his deigns for furniture, stained glass, textiles and books. Thus, Grasset did something other than posters, which was the only thing that Cheret was popular for. A monumental achievement for Grasset was his 1883 publication of The Tale Of The Four Young Men Of Aymon,which was designed and illustrated by Grasset himself it was printed in an aquatint-grain/ color-photo relief process from plates made by Charles Gillot. Gillot was responsible for transforming Grasset’s line and watercolor designs into subtle, full color printed book illustrations. It was one of Grasset’s working philosophies that design was important for its total integrations, format and typography. Spatial segmentation was used as an expressive component in the page layouts. This is evident in Grasset’s work. In 1886, Grasset received his first poster commission. His willowy maidens, who wore long, flowing robes and struck static poses to advertise inks, chocolates, and beer, soon began to grace French streets.

Eugéne Grasset, chapter title page and text page from Histoire des Quatre Fils Aymon, 1883.

A structural unity of type, image, and ornament is achieved.

Eugéne Grasset, exhibition poster, c. 1894.

Quietly demure instead of exuberant, Grasset’s figures
project a resonance very different from that of the Chérette.    

In this poster his style that was dubbed the “coloring book style” was evident. He used a thick black contour drawing locking forms into flat areas of color in a manner similar to medieval stained-glass windows. His figures echo Botticelli and wear medieval clothing and his stylized, flat cloud patterns reflected his knowledge of Japanese woodblocks. Grasset’s formal composition and muted color contrasted strongly with Cheret’s informally composed brightly colored work. In spite of Grasset’s tradition-bound attitude; his flowing line, subjective color, and ever-present floral motifs pointed toward French art Nouveau. His works included wallpaper and fabric design, stained-glass windows, typefaces and printers ornaments.