THEOPHILE STEINLEN: A STUDY OF HIS GRAPHIC ART, 1881-1900.
Item
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Title
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THEOPHILE STEINLEN: A STUDY OF HIS GRAPHIC ART, 1881-1900.
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Identifier
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AAI8222945
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identifier
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8222945
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Creator
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GILL, SUSAN.
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Contributor
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Linda Nochlin
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Date
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1982
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Fine Arts
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Abstract
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While remembered today primarily for his posters, Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen gained recognition in his own day as a magazine illustrator with a strong social conscience. Steinlen began his career in the early 1880s, at a time when illustrated periodicals were beginning to multiply. The following decade saw a print revival and poster craze which aided in the proliferation of Steinlen's graphic art. His work was also influenced by the rise of the French leftist movement, which developed in the 1880s and 1890s, after having been quashed in 1871, with the fall of the Paris Commune. These developments are discussed in the introductory chapter of the dissertation.;Steinlen's work for four major periodicals of the 1880s and 1890s are dealt with in the next four chapters. In Le Mirliton, Aristide Bruant's underground journal, Steinlen began to explore the social themes that would distinguish his style. He depicted the pimps, prostitutes and beggars about whom the leftist songwriter wrote. The artist extended his reputation as a proselytizer for the poor, the oppressed, and the working class in his illustrations for the weekly literary journal, Gil Blas illustre. The analysis focuses on Steinlen's images of midinettes, prostitutes, and vagabonds.;In the mid-1890s, the artist contributed to the Marxist newspaper, Le Chambard Socialiste. For this periodical, he produced a body of work quite distinct from the rest of his art, creating a series of stereotypes and allegorical figures that operated as left-wing propaganda aimed at the working-class readership of the journal. Steinlen also contributed to the anarchist periodical, La Feuille. Among his covers for this journal, those depicting the Dreyfus affair show that, contrary to what has been said of him, Steinlen became a confirmed Dreyfusard.;While the realist themes seen in the magazine illustrations are discussed in detail in Chapters II through V of the thesis, Chapter VI comprises a stylistic analysis of Steinlen's posters, many of which were done in a style linked to Art Nouveau. The thesis concludes with a short description of Steinlen's influence on such figures as Pablo Picasso, Edward Penfield, and John Sloan.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Art History
