Leonetto Capiello, poster Remington, color lithograph circa 1910

When Mucha and Toulouse Lautrec stopped creating images for the walls of Paris, caricaturists and press cartoonists took over and started working for advertising. Among them SEM, the social caricaturist, whose ink drawings line the staircase of the Jockey club in Paris, Leonetto Cappiello (the best artist represented here) or Auguste Roubille. All the posters exhibited belong to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and some date back to 1850.

An advertisement for Benedictine brandy by SEM, 1911

It is thanks to the industrialization of newspapers, that satirical drawings took off. Sold by subscription or by boys on the street « à la criée », le Charivari, la Silhouette or l’Assiette au beurre, needed to be noticed and distinguished from one another, and therefore created striking front page images. Some of the posters shown here are huge (three meters by two) and still in impeccable state.

For Cointreau liquor, Jossot uses a clown called Guignolet, 1898

Cappiello is certainly the star of the show with his ladies tasting red wine and enjoying it, showing off their corsets or learning to type on a Remington. His simple one color posters, with no background, are modern, very efficient and pleasant. Marius Roussillon is also interesting in his association with the tyre giant Michelin. The military drawings of the First World War are moving in their naiveté and largely contributed to drafting more men.

Soles by Michelin where the Bibendum smokes a cigar by O’Galop, 1905

In the corridor which connects a number of small rooms of this large exhibition, are shown Charlie Hebdo caricatures. It is very moving to see these posters, which remind us of such dramatic moments of 2015.

Curated by Réjane Bargiel, who runs the department dedicated to advertising in the museum, this show is a striking visual experience. (Les Arts Décoratifs, until September 4)