What Sets Us Apart?
Each Ré poster is inspired by a vintage poster from the Posters Golden Age (1885- 1939). The process begins with a powerful Golden Age image as selected by the contemporary chromist/artist in consultation with Rue Royale’s panel of experts. Images from many well-remembered artists who participated in the Golden Age; Toulouse-Lautrec, Mucha, Cheret, Bonnard, Steinlen, Beardsley, and Flagg are just a few included in our collection. During the Golden Age of Posters, there were many other master posterists in Europe and in America. These true geniuses created magnificent art, but their names and works have virtually disappeared from view. Many of these images have now been preserved and recreated and are part of the Ré collection lithographs.
The main purpose of a Golden Age poster when they were originally created was to advertise. They were printed on cheap paper with fugitive inks and were plastered on walls and displayed in shop windows. They were meant to endure just a few weeks. Most of the few Golden Age posters that remain have been ravaged by time. Paper has yellowed and torn. Colors have faded. Lines have blurred. Today, many good vintage posters are so scarce that even if they are in fair condition, they trade for astronomical prices.
Inspired by vintage posters, our two-part mission was:
- To preserve and make available for posterity, superbly executed, high quality lithographs of the very best poster art of the Golden Age of Posters, and
- To make them high quality and accessible to the public at affordable prices so they can be collected and enjoyed by all lovers of poster art.
- All Ré posters are printed on expensive, archival, rag content art paper, not yellowed by time
- The colors and line work of each Ré are fresh and pristine as they were originally meant to be-not faded, oxidized, and blurred by aging.
- The signature of the Ré artist unobtrusively appears within the image, assuring that the Ré cannot be mistaken or passed off by unscrupulous dealers as an antique.
- The small, unobtrusive hallmark of the S2 Atelier and in some cases the Museum or Foundation that collaborated are in the image.
- An individual sequential pencil number is on each Ré lithograph.