Notre Dame du Travail

This poster for Notre Dame Cathedral by Moreau-Nelaton, a leading impressionist painter, illustrator, designer and ceramicist, advertises “French workers, bring your stone to Notre-Dame du Travail. Send your contributions to the parish Priest”. Using his soft style with pastel-hues and a strongly religious tone, as with most of his work, he creates an intriguing poster showing man, woman, and child, bringing stone to the site, under the watchful eye of the mother Mary and child. (Yaneff)

‘Les Maîtres de l’Affiche’ (The Masters of the Poster) published in 1895
– 1900, is one of the most prestigious and influential art publications
in history. It features the most outstanding advertising posters of the
19th century. 

During the 19th century the poster celebrated
its ‘golden era.’ Under the hands of Chéret, Toulouse Lautrec, Mucha and
Steinlen, the poster attained new-found status as an innovative art
form, allowing mass distribution of an artist’s distinctive imagery. By
the 1890’s the streets of every great metropolis were enlivened by
larger, colourful posters. The poster had not only caught the eye of the
general public, but its best examples were already being regarded as
works of art there were to be exhibited, reviewed in journals and
collected. In 1895, the Imprimerie Chaix firm published reduced
chromolithographic versions of over 200 top posters by more than 90
great artists. This Chaix publication ‘Les Maîtres de l’Affiche,’ was
issued as separate numbered lithographs, every month for 60 months from
1895 to 1900. Of the 97 artists represented most were prominent painters
of the day. 

In this original complete collection each lithograph features an embossed seal marking its authenticity.