Travel Advertisements of the early 20th century
IMAGINARIUM : An Alternate History of ARt
Welcome to Imaginarium: an alternate history of art. A podcast where we delve in to the most obscure parts of art history.
Hello dear listeners, I’m your host Nadjah, and in this podcast, we try to shed light on less studied parts of the history of art and visual culture. In today’s episode, we’re going to pretend to get ready for a very long trip, the kind that we will come back from an entirely different person, let’s pack our belongings in a very pretty suitcase, stock up on sunscreen as you always should, a giant fashionable sun hat.
Let’s fly away then, together, into the sun, and discover the world of illustrated traveling advertisement in the beginning of the 20th century.
Traveling, as mundane as it may seem now, used to be a much more difficult experience and ordeal. While it can take now less than a day for a transatlantic flight, it used to take at least days or even weeks to travel from one place to another. Taking a vacation or simply going from one city to another, was a whole thing, it took so much time to go places so people then stayed at wherever they vacationed for way longer than a few days or weeks. Of course, traveling is always something that has been done, from leisure travels or business ventures, but today we’re looking at the intersection of art and tourism, especially in the first half of the 20th century, but we should still try to see how it got to that point.
During the 18th century, there was a practice that became fashionable for rich young men of the aristocracy and of the upper class of the society, especially british men : the Grand Tour. The Grand Tour, which is where we now get the word tourism, and was a tour of europe during several months, where they would be able to stay in various european countries and learn about the arts, music, history and the classical period, and essentially be acquainted with culture and ending up Cultivated. They visited well known historical and architectural sites and were listening to music and had the opportunity to look and physically witness the work of arts of the grand masters. The ability to send your sons on a Grand Tour was definitely a show of social status, of wealth and class, and a way to truly consolidate their places into the high society. It was a display of power.
During the 18th century and with the popularization of this Grand Tour, there was a new type of portrait that emerged, which was the Grand Tour Portrait, mostly popularized by the british tourists and which was both a memento of their travels, but also was serving as a way to display their wealth and power. It is definitely an intersection of travel and art that’s relevant to at least mention for this episode.
These portraits were mostly drawn by the italian artist Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787) whose career as a professional artist was mostly spent drawing the portraits of the british tourists who came into Rome during the 1740s and the 1750s. He painted 225 tourist portraits (that we know of) and 175 of them were british young men. The tourist portrait was a portrait of the Tourist posed with wealth and fine and highly decorated clothing and stylish wigs, with maybe one greek or roman bust or two atop of a heavy and ornate desk.
These portraits meant something as a way of asserting wealth, not only by the fact that they could afford to commission Pompeo Batoni, who was a very popular painter of the grand tour portrait. And I think it is important to remember that oil paintings are something that take a lot of time to create, just by the manner of the formal medium it is, oil paint needs to dry completely before you can apply another layer of paint. There is also the level of detail that Batoni put in the paintings to consider, very intricate details and precision, and these paintings were HUGE, being roughly 150cm by 240cm, so it is understandable that being able to afford a painting like this is a very obvious signifier of one’s wealth and social status.
Batoni was especially good as carefully crafting and arranging his portraits as to very efficiently display the status of the young tourists. The iconography that was in the paintings was thus used to achieve this goal, the subjects were depicted in their finest clothings, with a vaguely italian classically inspired background and landscapes behind them, and the inclusion of classical iconography, sculptures and paintings, as well as various accessories of learning, such as globes and mathematic instruments or several books are a mean of conveying the tourists’s culture and knowledge. The subject could be pictured writing a letter or simply standing there gravely. All of these elements were supposed to give you the aura that these were highly cultivated and refined ppl etc etc and this was conveyed though the mean of painting, the images MEAN something and you have to be able to understand them.
So this is why, in my opinion, critical and visual analysis is deeply important, whether it is like this case when we’re talking about these old 18th century portraits of rich white men and what those portraits were trying to convey, or more concretely, …. Images are increasingly becoming one of the main ways we communicate and, tbh they always have been an important mean of communication, and it’s important to remember that, that every piece of art or image is trying to convey something. Now the way you will receive it is another thing. But being aware of how images can communicate can definitely make you less vulnerable to propaganda and the dissemination of bigoted ideologies, because visual language is a way of communicating that is incredibly efficient. Batoni used his art to really help assert his client’s position in society, but think of how publicity is used to make you Want things, or how images can be used as a way to perpetuate racist stereotypes. And in this day and age, we are surrounded by images more than ever, whether it’s art, films, videos, or any kind of visual content really, and this is why visual literacy, being able to look at an image and be able to read it is an incredibly important skill to master.
During that same era, so during the 18th century and onward to the 19th century, traveling became a bit more common place due to the technological advancements, which brought a lot of art and writing about those travels. A lot of which were from europeans and their visits to their non-western colonies. These travel books and travel sketchbooks are unfortunately indisociable from colonialism and imperialism that made their existence possible in the first place. No matter how much you want to pretend colonialism isn’t a thing, it still is that during the 19th c. and early 20th whenever ppl went quote unquote Exploring, well what they mean is they went to terrorize natives to solidify the colonial presence in those areas and they show a very fetishizing perspective on these foreign places, and their art depict this outlook that they have.
There’s also the whole genre of painting that’s known as Orientalism. We have talked a bit abt it in episode 06: Baya Mahieddine, but France was an imperialist power during the 19th century that had a lot of north african and arab territories, such as Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon and more. Orientalism, the art movement, and not the book by Edward Said, which is a cornerstone of the post-colonial critical approach to art history and that i wholeheartedly recommend reading, Edward Said’s writing in general is one of the first thing i suggest for people wanting to dive into a post-colonial approach to art history. So .. back to the movement of Orientalism, it’s the specific painting genre during the 19th century by the european people and their vision of the Mystical Orient. Once again, here we are talking about a very fake and constructed vision of non-white people, of the Orient, especially of north-african, arab and asian people. With work of art such as The Snake Charmer by Jean-Léon Gérome in 1879 or Women of Algiers in their Apartment by Eugène Delacroix in 1834, that depicts north african women languidly posing, it is a stealthy look by white people ppl on the exotic and mysterious orient. It is then not a reflection of the truth, but a depiction of the imagined Exoticism of the Orient. So it is through these images that the creation of the orient and of the Other was defined, and it is by understanding how these images and visual tropes that still somehow define the visions and stereotypes of The Other work that we can understand the longlasting impact of this images.
As travelling became more widely available, a lot more people were taking vacations and travelling abroad, people that did not historically have the disposable income nor the freedom to travel. the industry of tourism was thus booming due to the democratisation of traveling, of this becoming something that was accessible to the average person and not only to the upper classes and to the uber rich. We have to acknowledge the work of labour unions in giving people guaranteed paid time off during the year, which meant that workers were now having the opportunity to simply leave for a week or two per year for the first time ever. As a side note, please support your unions and mutual aid, this is how we win against the crushing weight of capitalism, and get better things for ourselves. Billionaires do not care for you, and there is a better chance of people becoming homeless than billionaires, so please stop licking the boots of Elon M*sk, it is really not worth the embarrassment and he will never love you back.
During the 19th century, the development of the train and the railway made it so that distances felt closer. And with the upcoming progress for cruise ships during the turn of the century and the plane during the 1920s, the world felt both larger and smaller than it ever was. You could go to places faster and in a much comfortable manner than you ever could before this, and people took advantage of it. Of course, at the beginning, it was mostly the rich people who got to take advantage of the Newest and most luxurious comforts on a cruise ship (even if those ships ended up sinking to the bottom of the ocean rest in piece the Titanic) or the glamorous hollywood actors and actresses who were the first ones to really utilize the plane. It was the age of the Jet Set, of luxurious travel for those who could afford to.
This new accessibility and mundanity, eventually, of those new travel methods, also made it so that the industry of traveling became much more common and ordinary to the average person. So while the rich people were traveling really luxuriously, normal people could also finally afford to also travel, even if not with the same luxuries. And all of these factors can explain why people were simply traveling more, which made it so that the industry of traveling and tourism was soaring, and with it, came the need to promote the destinations as well as the airways, railways and hotels. It is Capitalism™️ baby.
And this where the advertisement poster comes in. Those very vibrant and colorful posters were used as a way to attract, one might even say seduce, the consumer to a certain destination or way of transport. The field of graphic design was progressing very quickly during those years before the television was a widespread everywhere, before the internet and before our age of current mass-communication, it was the most efficient way to reach your audience, by way of using posters, brochures, pamphlets. During the first half of the 20th century, the medium of the poster, of the brochure, of the printed medium in essence, was the best way to reach to an audience, to make money and to encourage people to travel abroad or even domestically and to encourage the booming industry of tourism.
Print was a cheap distribution method, and with the progress of the 19th century print and technological progress, it quickly became a wide spread way of communicating and of advertising. With an easily recognizable visual identity and branding, it is very easy to leave a mark in people’s mind and make sure they do remember your specific advertisement, it is a way of getting this image to stay in the mind of your audience. Those travel posters also had a very standardized sizing and layout, and general aesthetic, so there was a general cohesive visual identity across the board for these posters.
The art of advertising, of selling an idea, which is infinitely more difficult than ppl seem to initially think so, is at the intersection of art and marketing and of, i guess, capitalism. Advertisement is mainly efficient communication, you need to be able to really convey what you want in just a manner of seconds, the visuals needs to be striking and grab the attentions of the people passing by. And this is why so much thought is always being put behind these seemingly simple poster. But outward simplicity, does not necessarily mean intrinsic simplicity, and the way posters are being used and created is a complex process that has a Goal. It can be informational, political propaganda, protest, or our case advertising, but a poster is usually created with an intention in mind. And when it comes to these travel advertisements, the end goal after all, was to make money. And like as always, death to capitalism, but did they create some pretty stuff tho ….
When it comes to posters, there seems to always be this opinion going around that graphic design or illustration, especially when it’s created with a commercial intent and purpose rather than like …. « inspiration » and creative impulse, that it is less genuine or authentic than other works of art, that it is not Real Art, but only simple drawings, and I hugely disagree with this personally. First of all, I think that every artist deserves to be paid for their work, and working as an artist means working for money, so there is that. And second o f all, even if created within certain visual confines and for commercial and advertisment purposes, I cannot help but feel the wonder and escape that these posters inspire, and I can only imagine that it must have still taken talent and artistic skills to create those, so I think these posters re very much within the scope of art.
These posters were selling a dream of luxury, of pleasure, of sensual travels. desires. With time, photography replaced illustrations / painted adverts during the 1960s and onwards as color photography became more commonplace and cheaper than commissioning visual artists to draw and create illustrated posters. But during the whole of the first half of the 20th century, it was still the norm to have these type of illustrated posters as a mean of advertisement. And they all followed a very specific set of visual conventions and had a visual identity and branding. So these travel posters and postcards often featured very bold typography over top the image. Welcome to Istambul, it might say or welcome to Rome. And were often painted in vibrant colors, and represented very typical and even stereotypical view of the country or area that is advertised. The colors that are used are often bold and vibrant, the shining turquoise of the sea, the bright skies and the lush greens, the sun and the fluffy clouds in the distance, giving the viewer the desire to escape the dreary and gray routine of their lives.
The art style of these posters will usually follow the graphic design and art trends of the time, so you will see the posters of the 1900s being made with a very art nouveau stylized manners, the 1920s with art deco and so on and so forth. It is thus a reflection of passing trends and visual identity.
During the beginning of the 20th century, one of the main travel experience was though these extremely luxurious cruises, very much imagine the Titanic as a sort of visual reference for this. With the popularity of these cruises, a lot of new cruise lines appeared and the need for promoting and advertising led to a lot of these travel posters being created. Travel Poster Artists such as A. M. Cassandre, who worked in Paris and ended up setting up his own advertising agency Alliance Graphique where he created travel posters for advertising purpose such as the one for the cruise ship « L’ATLANTIQUE » His art was heavily inspired by the graphic design and art style trends of the time, so there’s a lot of influence from cubism, surrealism as well as the style of design and aesthetic that was popularized by the Bauhaus. I dont think i would really be able to get into EVERYTHING that is The Bauhaus, but to be very brief about it, it’s a german school of architecture, design and crafts that was created in 1919 and that ended up hugely influencing modern ideas of design and creativity afterwards.
Even though the first commercial flight happened in 1914, it will be well until the end of the first world war and into the 1920s that the general public would finally feel at ease with the idea of travelling by air flight. With this began the proliferation of multiple airlines as this way of transport continued to become more common and widespread. During the 1920s, the idea of Destination Travel began to be more fashionable and take hold in the way people conceived traveling.
Even though the plane was starting to assert its presence in the world of mainstream travel, during the beginning of the 20th century, the train still remained the most reliable and most used method to go from one place to another. Even though it seems like a fairly boring way to get from one city to another one, railways company were still using posters to advertise their lines and attract clients who wanted to go on a vacation. Certain could also be a hugely leisurely and luxurious experience, and thus was also advertised as such. One only has to think abt the place the train holds on the popular imaginary, with works such as The Murder on the Orient Express, a book by Agatha Christie, a story that even tho was murderous as the title would suggest, showcased just how fanciful this journey in a highly luxurious train car could be. All of this, combined with the evocative and dreamy designs of the posters created an imaginary that really sold you the idea of an extravagant and leisurely trip. I wanted to see if someday i could offer my mother a travel on that one as she adores agatha christie’s books, but unfortunately, at 17k euros for one person, it is…deeply out of my budget… but a girl can still dream, and this is what those posters and these type of extremely luxurious try to sell you, a dream. The posters for the Orient-Express often depict images of the city of Istambul, its final destination, or one of its various stops along the way such as Milan, Venice or Belgrade.
The same company that owned the Orient Express, The CIWL or compagnie des Wagons-Lits, or in english, International Sleeping-Car Company, also owned Le train bleu or The Blue Train, is a train that really plays on this extravagant luxe of the 1920s, inaugurated in 1922 and which traveled from Calais to the Riviera while the travelers could experience a very comfortable and enjoyable experience. This train was also advertised with different posters through the years, first by the artist ALO in a very art déco aesthetic, as par for the times. The characteristics of this art style lay mostly in a very simplified aesthetic, with flat colors and shapes. It goes for a very streamlined and geometrical visual look.
The act of traveling also became an enticing and somewhat inspiring subject that featured in books and cinema of the time. Even with the democratization of traveling and its now almost mundanity due to the fact that it was now easier to travel and move across the globe than ever before, there is still that glamour and wonder about the act of traveling and taking a vacation in a beautiful and sunny location. And cinema uses this theme beautifully, especially as a way to We can think about such movies as the 1953 Roman Holiday starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, or even the 1955 Summertime with Katharine Hepburn or the 1955 again To Catch A Thief with the lovely Cary Grant and Grace Kelly wearing beautiful outfits near the french riviera and trying to … yk … .catch a thief., all of this while dressed in the beautiful costumes created by eight times academy award winner costume designer Edith Head. Another of these summer movies is Plein Soleil in 1960, starring Alain Delon, and is one of the cinematic adaptation of the book written by Patricia Highsmith The Talented Mr. Ripley. Which is equally as summery, escapist and with those beautifully romantic vacation scenes, but also …with much more murder. A very good movie, I recommend it. These movies, with the extremely lush and sunny sets near the sea side and under a clear sky, do remind me of these travel ads posters, with their beautiful aesthetic that make you dream of escape and warm days.
Even though these posters were selling a dream, it’s important to think about how these posters were posing on the destinations they were advertising a very distinctly western gaze. If there’s something I hope I can at least teach is the importance of Looking in art. Who is doing the looking and who is being seen, and this is always very important to consider when you want to understand a work of art. Especially, since, as the audience, you are now also part of the game by Looking at this artwork. Anyway not to get on a tangent.. It’s those dynamics that are very intrinsic to the analysis and comprehension surrounding the context of a particular piece of visual art. So with this in mind, that these travel adverts are being created mostly by western people to push people to buy a ticket to whatever destination, it can explain that it’s very easy to cross from wanting to represent something thats typical even though slightly stereotypical, the same way italy has pasta and pizza and the leaning tower of pisa, or that London has its red telephone boxes, the big ben and its double decker buses, to being outright racist.
And while not all of these posters were offensive, most of them are rly just amazingly beautiful depiction of foreign landscapes in the sun that make you want to pack your things and Leave, a lot of them were often straight up racist. And were portraying very offensive depictions of non-white people in a way that feels reductive and trope-y. And while some just had the lesser crime of being extremely fetishizing and orientalist, other were simply disgusting honestly. With terrible portrayals of black people and a show of anti-blackness racism that is unacceptable and heinous, but that was still the norm in the beginning of the 20th century. And it is not because i personally deeply love these posters on a personal basis, aesthetically and visually , that we can simply ignore over this sort of thing, we have to contend with this sort of context to the history of art and visual history, and this is why it’s important to be able to understand images, and what they communicate. As I was saying earlier, an image could maybe just be a pretty landscape, but also with the context of it being posters created by western companies, it makes you understand how they perceived these foreign countries and the Other.
Before we go, I put a bunch of relevant resources on today’s subject in the show notes, you have some books as well as some theses and articles that you can read if you maybe want to further your knowledge and read more on the subject. As always, all the relevant images will also be on all of our social platforms @ imaginarium_pod on instagram as well as on twitter. This podcast was written, narrated and produced, by yours truly, Nadjah, If you want to support this podcast, you can do so on patreon.com-nadjah , n a d j a h . I want to take this opportunity to thank my patrons : may leigh, vilja sala, Trung-Le Nguyen Cappecci, Jak, Sam Hirst, Jenny, Jay Harker as well as Nathalie, thank you so much for making the work i do with this podcast possible.
Today’s Recommendation of the day is the 2013 british tv-series called Dancing On The Edge starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Angel Coulby and Matthew Goode, to name only a few of the main cast. This series is a 6 episodes show centered around a black jazz band in the London of the 1930s. It is a brilliant show and the soundtrack is also delightful to listen to if you want to listen to some jazz. The performances are also really great.
On this, I wish you all a very lovely day, evening or night, and I hope to see you again very soon.