Eugène Grasset’s influence on Art Nouveau: from posters to typographic design, 1885–1900

When Grasset revolutionized the art of illustration and design after settling in Paris in 1871, he blended influences from Japanese art and medieval styles into his diverse body of work.

Eugène Grasset (1845–1917) is a Swiss artist, trained in architecture, who settled in Paris in 1871. He discovered Japanese art with the pioneer of photoengraving Charles Gillot, for whom he designs a furniture set. It is in close collaboration with Gillot that he creates the Histoire des Quatre Fils Aymon, a splendid book illustrated in colors, which renews the aesthetic in this area. At the same time, he designs wallpaper and textile patterns, mosaics, stamps, jewelry; he participates in the decoration of the Chat Noir cabaret. Like many of the creators of his time, he demanded the abolition of the hierarchy between major and minor arts. He designed his first poster for Les Fêtes de Paris, in 1885. He designed the emblematic sower for Éditions Larousse and the poster for Sarah Bernhardt in Joan of Arc, in 1890. With his creation for Encre Marquet, in 1892, its delicate type became clearer. In the Cycles et automobiles Georges Richard poster, in 1897, a splendid Art Nouveau character highlights the brand’s logo, a blue four-leaf clover.

Each of his posters is an opportunity for very in-depth research into the letter. He strives to rediscover the principles of calame writing and develops them over time, giving his compositions an unparalleled solemnity. This also led him to create a typeface for the George Peignot foundry which bears his name, le Grasset, which enjoyed notable success until the First World War. In 1905, he published a monumental Méthode de composition ornementale, which was a landmark. The same year, he began his teaching at the École Estienne school, entitled “the history and drawing of the letter”.

The posters were reproduced in the various publications of Maîtres de l’affiche.