Colourful poster with four dancing figures, including two men, a woman and a human-sized articulated wooden doll. It reads "Salon des Cent, 13e Exposition, Galeries de la Plume, 31 rue Bonaparte".
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Marketing modern art at 31 Rue Bonaparte

How the Salon des Cent used billboards and posters to advertise modern art in Paris

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Imogen Greenhalgh (otvara se u novom prozoru) (Europeana Foundation)

Nowadays, we’re used to billboards and posters advertising the latest exhibitions on the sides of buses and busy street corners. Art is big business, so it’s only natural it’s got a publicity budget to match.

In fact, art posters can even become valuable collectables, fetching huge sums at auction houses around the world. All of this is a relatively modern phenomenon though.

In the 1890s, advances in colour lithography made it easy to print large posters for advertisements and a new trend was born. At the forefront of this new craze was the art nouveau movement and, particularly, the Salon des Cent, an ongoing commercial art exhibition housed at 31 Rue Bonaparte in Paris.

Colour poster showing a woman observing a plant and holding a sketchbook and pencil in her hand. ‘Salon des Cent’, “Exposition E.GRASSET” and basic information about the exhibition (address, opening days and times) are written.

The Salon des Cent was, as its name suggests, an ever-changing show of 100 artists.

With no criteria given for what could go on display, and established figures featured alongside little known names, it was an exciting forum for experimentation and new aesthetic approaches.

Some artists became regular fixtures; recurring names included Toulouse Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha and Eugene Grasset. Perhaps the Salon’s most famous legacy, however, is the vast collection of posters produced to publicise its exhibitions, each commissioned by a participating artist.

These posters are now considered important art nouveau works in their own right, and some of the first examples of using advertising and other mainstream mediums to create decorative art. By turning the street into an art gallery for the everyday passer-by, the artists fulfilled their aim of creating 'social art'.

You can explore a whole range of beautiful examples from our collections, or look at some of our favourites below.

Coloured poster of a harlequin watching a clown Pierrot paint a ballerina. 
‘Salon des Cent’, “Salon de la Plume” and basic information about the exhibition are written.
Coloured poster with a woman reading a brochure and another looking at works on display. ‘Salon des Cent’, ‘Nouvelle exposition d'ensemble, février 1896’, ‘Lire “la Plume”, organe du Salon’ are written.
Coloured poster featuring a woman drawn in art nouveau style, surrounded by plants.
Coloured poster of a woman sitting under a white blanket, half-naked, with long hair, holding a paintbrush and a writer's quill.
Coloured poster with a stylised drawing of a woman playing tennis. ‘Salon des Cent’, “31ème Exposition Ensemble”, “Du 10 août au 15 octobre”, “31 Rue Bonaparte”, “Entrée 0.f50 cent” are written.
Coloured poster of an elegant woman looking at works on display. "Salon des 100", "14e exposition", "31 rue Bonaparte", "Entrée 50c" are written.