Parisian Pastimes

"Palais de Glace"

The French language sounds so elegant and yet whimsical at the same time.  These 19th century posters can be defined in the same fashion.  Jules Cheret and George Goursat were French artists who captured the Parisian atmosphere of ice skating during the 1900's, a popular pastime attributed to King Louis XVI.  Posters were a way of advertising iceskating venues, such as Champs-Elysee, with fashionable high society women in the spotlight.  Was this a device for merely rendering Parisian leisurely activities, or the dawn of high fashion advertisements?  

(Jules Cheret)

Jules Cheret (1836-1932) was a master of using the lithograph technique in his posters as a way of showing sheer happiness and flighty movement of these women; characteristics that synchronize the vivacity of iceskating. These lively women iceskaters, however, are not only showing off their best sit spins and backwards crossovers, but also doing them dressed to the nines!  The images are a clear illustration of 19th century's exquisite female performing everyday life with grace and beauty; a comparable image to today's fashionista's balletic walk down the high fashion streets of modern day Paris.  

(Georges Goursat)

Georges Goursat (1863-1934) used a technique called pochoir, french for stencil, which is a labor intensive way of using cutouts to apply color by hand during the print making process. Instead of using warm colors like Cheret above to indicate a sense of warmth and happiness, Goursat creates a chilling atmosphere with cool grays and negative space to represent icey-whites.  The joyfulness is still created by the S-curve of the woman skater facing away from the viewer as if she is finishing a swirly spin that we can follow by the carving of the ice below her. I think one of the main objectives of these posters is to entice the public into the spirited life of Parisians, especially during a time of female entertainers of Montmarte cabaret!