Print Du Jour

This fantastic new arrival is part of our Art Nouveau exhibition, a stunning and iconic graphic work by the  Beggerstaff Brothers, William Nicholson and James Pryde.


Harper Magazine [Beefeater]
Lithograph
1896
Image 257 x 224 mm, Sheet 399 x 291 mm

From Les Maitres de l’Affiche PL. 16

Lithograph by William Nicholson, signed Beggerstaff Brothers in the stone. Blind stamped in bottom-right corner of sheet with the image of a poster held aloft by a seated elegantly dressed lady, the emblem of Les Maitres de l’Affiche .

""Although this poster was created for an American magazine it's British distributors wanted to invoke a positive British image, hence the Beggarstaffs featured one of the royal yeoman of the guard, the 'Beefeater', to identify it with superior British goods. ""
(Rennert, PAI-XV, 125)

""…a passage written by a reviewer in the November 1895 issue of the 'Art Journal' may be taken as the characteristic response of most critics. 'Nothing so strong and so amazingly defiant of accepted convention has yet invaded the hoardings', wrote the Art Journal. 'It is a tour de force; the great beefeater, in solid scarlet on a scarlet background, with his brown spear, balanced against a huge white panel, most admirably lettered, is a triumph of decorative arrangement. It is only fair that such a plucky attempt should receive lavish appreciation. In simplifying drawings and pattern to the last degree, Messrs Beggarstaff have a struck a new note, which might be fitly echoed in mural decoration of a more permanent sort. It is English, it is modern, and it is good, very good"" (Beggarstaff p. 57)