Harper's, May

Harper's, May
Harper's, May

Harper's, May

Date1896
Artist (American painter, illustrator, 1866–1925)
Illustration CitationAdvertisement for Harper's New Monthly Magazine, May 1896 Les Maitres de L'Affiche, pl. 115, 1898
MediumCommercial lithograph
Dimensionssheet: 17 3/4 × 11 7/8 in. (45.1 × 30.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Walker Penfield, 1971
Object number1971-190
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsPRINT
Label TextAs art director for Harper and Brothers, Edward Penfield designed a series of posters to advertise Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, creating a unified marketing campaign in a signature style. The posters feature large areas of flat color and depict one or more figures in some leisure activity. The subjects usually reflect the upper class status of the magazine's readers.

Penfield's posters were popular during the so-called Poster Craze of the 1890s. One critic remarked on the high quality of such works in 1899: "Book and magazine covers, lettering, theatrical bills, advertisements, in fact anything with which the poster could have the slightest affiliation has profited materially. In fact, we are...at this time accustomed to good, strong decorative work in advertising of all sorts..."


Harper's for May
Edward Penfield
1893
Harper's May "Whippet"
Edward Penfield
1897
Harper's, May
Edward Penfield
1895
Harper's March
Edward Penfield
1897
Harper's June
Edward Penfield
1899
Harper's, November
Edward Penfield
1898
Harper's September
Edward Penfield
1894
Harper's September
Edward Penfield
1895
Harper's April
Edward Penfield
1899
Harper's April
Edward Penfield
1896
Harper's Christmas
Edward Penfield
1895