Franzosische Kunstausstellung zu Krefeld 1907

This lithographic poster promoting a French art exhibition in Krefeld was created by Théophile Alexandre Steinlen in the late 19th or early 20th century. Lithography, unlike painting, is a printmaking process. It relies on the chemical repulsion of oil and water. The artist draws on a stone or metal plate with a greasy medium, then applies water, which is repelled by the greasy areas. Ink, which is also greasy, adheres only to the drawing. The image is then transferred to paper. The poster would have been printed in large numbers, a form of mass production. Steinlen, like his contemporary Toulouse-Lautrec, blurred the lines between art and commerce. He shows that the skills of the artist could be put in the service of advertising, raising questions about labor, artistic value, and consumption. The beauty of the woman and the rose is undeniable, yet they are used to entice viewers into a commercial transaction. The poster’s story invites us to think about how materials, making, and social context are inseparable from an artwork's meaning.