Art Nouveau Posters: Mucha, Chéret and Lautrec Prints

Four things, usually together: long, curving lines; flat areas of colour; lettering and borders drawn into the picture instead of set beside it; and plant forms, flowers and flowing hair turned into ornament. The name itself came from a shop. The V&A bought furniture mounts from Siegfried Bing's shop in Paris, L'Art Nouveau, and its record notes that the shop gave its name to the style.

The posters were colour lithographs, drawn for the stone and printed in a few strong inks. That is why they look so flat and so bright, and why they read from across a room. The style did not last: Art Nouveau had fallen out of fashion before the First World War, as the V&A's introduction to Art Deco explains.

Jules Chéret came first. The V&A calls him the father of the poster, crediting his work on the colour lithographic process and his huge output; its record of his 1893 poster for the dancer Loïe Fuller notes that Fuller chose Chéret to design it. His posters show women in yellow and red, usually mid-dance.

Alphonse Mucha (1860 to 1939) was Czech-born and came to Paris in 1887. The V&A describes him as primarily a painter who took up poster design for financial reasons. After Gismonda he drew advertisements for champagne, beer and cigarette papers, several of them printed by F. Champenois, each built around a woman framed by her own hair and a halo of ornament.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec brought the nightclub in. His Moulin Rouge, La Goulue of 1891 was printed in four colours, and its abrupt cropping, as the V&A points out, makes the viewer feel like one of the crowd watching the dancer.

Eugène Grasset worked as a book illustrator and poster designer and was more conservative than Lautrec, according to the V&A, which compares his Jeanne d'Arc poster to a stained-glass window. Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, born in Lausanne in 1859, moved to Paris in 1881, joined the Montmartre artists around Lautrec, and drew cats so often that a V&A record describes a caricature of him nearly buried under animals.

Ten picks across the five artists. Every unframed print is made to order on 230gsm archival matte paper in ten sizes, from $34.99 to $129.99 CAD.

1. Alphonse Mucha, JOB

The one most people picture when they hear Mucha's name. In JOB a woman in a loose pink gown leans back with a lit cigarette in one hand and a booklet of cigarette papers in the other, her black hair spreading in ribbons around her under the giant JOB letters. The V&A describes the design as an advertisement for Job cigarette papers, and the imprint along the bottom names its printer, F. Champenois.

2. Alphonse Mucha, Champagne Ruinart

A tall, narrow design for a tall, narrow wall. Champagne Ruinart shows a woman in a white dress with a blue wrap at her shoulders, raising a glass, her hair curling all the way to the floor. The V&A dates its copy to 1896. It works between two windows or beside a bar cart.

3. Alphonse Mucha, Zodiac

Mucha's profile of a woman in a jewelled headdress, with the signs of the zodiac circling behind her head. The V&A dates the design to 1896 and notes it was used for the cover of La Plume, the magazine of the Salon des Cent. Zodiac is warm orange and red, so it suits a bedroom or a reading corner.

4. Alphonse Mucha, Bières de la Meuse

A woman crowned with red poppies and ears of barley holds up a glass of beer, her hair curling into the frame, with factory buildings in a panel below. According to the V&A, Mucha's Bières de la Meuse (1897) was commissioned to promote breweries in the Meuse River valley and printed by Champenois.

5. Jules Chéret, Pantomimes Lumineuses

Chéret at full volume. In Pantomimes Lumineuses a dancer in a yellow polka-dot dress lifts her skirt while a pale grey figure leans in behind her, and the lettering announces the Théâtre Optique of E. Reynaud with music by Gaston Paulin. The V&A dates the poster to 1892. Hang it where you want the room's loudest colour.

6. Jules Chéret, La Danse du Feu

Movement on paper. La Danse du Feu shows a dancer turning inside swirling yellow and orange skirts against a dark blue ground, under the Folies-Bergère name. It pairs with Pantomimes Lumineuses as a matched set of Chéret's dancers.

7. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Aristide Bruant

The cabaret singer in his wide hat, long black cape and scarf, a cane in his gloved hand, under the word Ambassadeurs. According to the V&A, Bruant insisted that Lautrec design this 1892 poster, and when the club's director disliked it, Bruant said he would not perform unless it stayed up. Our Aristide Bruant print is in black and grey tones, which suits a monochrome room or a study.

8. Eugène Grasset, Jeanne d'Arc

Sarah Bernhardt commissioned this poster for her role as Joan of Arc, and Grasset made it look like a stained-glass window, according to the V&A: Joan holds a banner, her other hand on her heart, as arrows fly in from the left. Jeanne d'Arc dates from 1890. For a second Grasset, Les Fêtes de Paris shows a herald on a charging white horse blowing a long trumpet. Our print has a blank panel at the right; the V&A describes its 1885 copy as a proof printed before the lettering was complete.

9. Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Lait Pur Stérilisé

A girl in a red dress sits on a chair drinking milk from a bowl with both hands while three cats crowd around her feet. The V&A identifies the girl as the artist's daughter and dates the poster to 1894. Lait Pur Stérilisé is the gentlest print here and the natural choice for a kitchen or a child's room.

10. Alphonse Mucha, La Trappistine, Framed

For a gift that goes straight on the wall. La Trappistine shows a woman in a long white gown holding flowers and a bottle on a tray, under a halo of decorative roundels. This framed edition arrives assembled in a Black Oak or Natural Oak wooden frame with clear acrylic glazing, in five sizes from $84.99 CAD.

By the line. Art Nouveau curves; Art Deco is geometric. The V&A places Art Deco in the 1920s, notes that it was called Style Moderne at the time and only named Art Deco in the 1960s, and calls the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes one of its pivotal moments. Art Deco also borrowed Art Nouveau's plant and flower forms and reworked them for a modern look.

A quick test for a poster: if the woman's hair flows into the border and every line bends, it is Art Nouveau. If the figure is built from blocks, zigzags and sunbursts, it is Art Deco.

These designs were made to be read from a distance, so give them room.

• Pair by artist. Two Mucha women in identical frames look planned; Chéret's dancers make a loud, happy pair.
• Use tall designs on narrow walls. Champagne Ruinart and La Trappistine fit between windows or beside a door, where a square print would look cramped.
• Keep the frames simple. The posters already carry their own decorative borders, so a thin black or oak frame works better than an ornate one. Our guide to framing a poster covers mats and sizing.
• Size up. The size guide shows each size against a wall before you choose.

Framed if you want it on the wall the day it arrives; unframed if you already have a frame or want to choose one. Unframed prints start at $34.99 CAD and ship flat in a mailer at 11x14 and smaller, or rolled in a tube for larger sizes. Framed editions start at $84.99 CAD and arrive assembled; browse them all in framed posters.

For the advertising side of the same era, Cappiello's posters and more of Chéret's are in vintage French posters, and our guide to the best vintage art prints covers paintings for the rest of the house.

• Art Nouveau takes its name from Siegfried Bing's Paris shop and fell out of fashion before the First World War.
• Chéret is known as the father of the poster; Mucha made it decorative; Lautrec drew the nightclubs.
• Mucha's women, Chéret's dancers and Steinlen's cats each suit a different room.
• Pair prints by artist, keep frames plain, and give tall designs a narrow wall.

Want them all in one place? Browse every Art Nouveau poster and Belle Époque print in the collection and pick the two or three that fit your wall.