Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen

Born in Switzerland, Steinlen moved to Paris in 1882 and settled in Montmartre, where he quickly joined the Chat Noir circle, providing illustrations for many magazines. Anatole France called him “the master of the street” and deemed his work “epic,” as his illustrations, born from his personal socialist and humanist sympathies, found inspiration in the everyday life and miseries of Paris’ proletarian communities. His other sources of inspiration were gentler and happier; he adored cats and his daughter, both of whom appear in his most charming posters. He was an excellent draughtsman, and when he teamed up with Charles Verneau he found a printer and a partner with whom he would produce some of the best posters ever printed. In fact, the first poster Verneau printed for Steinlen, which was only the artist’s second poster in his “mature style” (Arwas p. 54), Lait Pur Sterilisé, instantly became a success and has remained an iconic image of the period. “The poster established Steinlen as a masterful illustrator of cats” (Cate & Gill p. 116). The image is almost deceptively simple, featuring the artist’s daughter, Colette, sitting at a table sipping from a bowl of milk, with three cats at her feet hoping for a single spilled drop. It is a delicate image, beautifully drawn on stone with a “flowing curvilinearality” (Cates & Gill p. 122). For the drawing Steinlen did not use any black for outlining, but rather green, which added to the soft feel of the image. The image was so popular that it was reprinted the following year under the auspices of Bella, the London collector, for Nestle’s Swiss Milk.

Steinlen arrived in Paris from his native Switzerland in 1882; his first poster dates from 1885 and, in a long and extremely prolific career that saw him illustrate about 100 books and over 1,000 issues of periodicals, as well as create paintings, lithographs and bronzes, he produced about fifty posters. Abdy makes this point: “Steinlen was one of the four or five great poster artists of his time; all his lithographic work is distinguished by a freshness and vigour which makes it powerful, and a simplicity and sympathy which makes it appealing . . . The subject of his posters are those dearest to his heart, his pretty little daughter Colette, and his beloved cats” (p. 94). All the warmth, humanity and affection for which he is so loved comes through gloriously in this poster for the newly-marketed “lait sterilisé” that was touted over the “lait ordinaire” at that time. Charles Knowles Bolton, writing a year after its publication, proclaimed that this “is perhaps, the most attractive poster ever made. No man with half a heart could fail to fall in love with the child.” Louis Rhead himself commented: “When I saw it in Paris last year . . . it seemed to me the best and brightest form of advertising that had appeared.” That judgment remains valid today.

Posters by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen