William H. Bradley, Thanksgiving No. from "The Chap-Book," 1895
|
IMAGE LIST | ACTIVITIES
Related Topic: Chapbooks |
The Saturday Evening Post called Will Bradley the "dean of American design," and his life and career were closely linked with American publishing. Son of a cartoonist, his first job, at age eleven, was as a printer's devil (apprentice). Between 1896 and 1898 he published his own magazine, Bradley: His Book, devoted to "Art, Literature, and Printing." Although Bradley's illustrations and typography appeared in several well-known magazines, his reputation grew because of the bold posters, like this one, that he designed for the Chap-Book, a literary journal based in Chicago.
These posters were among the first examples of the art nouveau style in the United States, and they were instrumental in popularizing it. Bradley was influenced by Beardsley's sinuous lines and broad areas of contrast. Here the swirling folds of the women's voluminous dresses echo the type above and recall the fluted round shapes of Thanksgiving pumpkins. The strong contrast of orangish red and blue emphasizes the movement of the skirts' curving folds. Tiny feet peek out as small triangles and make the women seem almost airborne.
Eye-catching posters like this were meant to boost newsstand sales of magazines. Magazines were no longer sold primarily through subscriptions, and there was great competition for readers. Spurred by the lure of profitable national advertising, some 7,500 periodicals were established in the United States between 1885 and 1905. Most were short lived, but collecting newsstand posters became something of a popular craze in the 1890s.
The Chap-Book was published between 1894 and 1898. It was planned primarily as a way to promote a small publishing house, but its crisp modern design and lively writing won it a sophisticated audience. The first issue included a self-portrait by Beardsley. Over its run the Chap-Book published fiction, poetry, and criticism by Stephen Crane, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Thomas Hardy, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine, Henry James, and William Butler Yeats. Max Beerbohm contributed a regular caricature.
Learning Activities
Art
• Research the technique of color lithography.
• Design a poster for a contemporary magazine.
Humanities
• Consider the impact of magazines today on popular culture. Do they perform the same role now? If not what does?
• Read selections by authors published in the Chap-Book.
• Create a chapbook.