From The Blurb: With the development of color lithography, the poster came into its own in the late nineteenth century-as an advertising medium, an instrument of national propaganda, and a new art form. Great artists designed for the 'Gallery of the Boulevard'. Some, like Toulouse-Lautrec, are as well known for posters as for their paintings. Collectors were quick to appreciate the importance of the new works, and even sponged them off billboards in the middle of the night. It is this great period of poster art-from about 1870 until World War II-that Bevis Hillier explores most fully. After a brief section on the prehistory of the poster he shows it suddenly flaring into brilliant color and can-can abandon with Cheret and Lautrec. Here, also, are Beardsley, Mucha, and the Art Nouveau craze, which spread rapidly to America. There, artists like Edward Penfield, Charles Dana Gibson, and Will Bradley popularized the poster. Hillier traces the development of theatrical and war posters, as well as the role of the poster in the sudden expansion of the advertising industry. Finally, he surveys the modern scene, from recent psychedelic trends to the student-rebellion posters of Paris and Czechoslovakia.