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Posted on Monday, 13 August 2007 |
 Many people are familiar with them. They have either bought them as souvenirs, as gifts or as straightforward post cards to send home. They are the bright and colourful images of a time gone by that were and still are, used to capture the essence of the Riviera. The sun, the style, the natural beauty and the glamour.
The posters of the French Riviera have become an artwork unto themselves. Originally used to sell and promote the French Riviera to tourists at home and abroad these images have become synonymous with if not the Riviera then all things French.
The posters originated in the late 1800's when they were used to promote the message of the day. The tourist industry on the French Riviera was flourishing. Grand Hotels were springing up at an incredible rate and visitor numbers were doubling and growing year on year.
As more and more people started to come, then more and more hotels, villas and apartments sprung up in more and more places along the coast to facilitate increasing numbers of tourists. Competition between the towns increased and tourists searched for the natural, wild and dramatic beauty that they had read about in the first editions of travel writings.
Tourism was important to everyone, the local inhabitants, the local business and in some cases the towns and cities very survival depended completely on tourism. It was important to promote oneself amongst the increasing competition not just from your neighbouring village but from neighbouring countries as the more and more wealthy European nobility embarked on the 'Grand Tour'.
Early Cote d'Azur posters depicted a glimpse of sweeping blue coastline, usually from behind the swooshing petticoats of a pretty local girl peeking demurely from under her traditional 'capeline' hat, surrounded by an abundance of blooming flowers.
Later the images became racier with the same local girl but this time wearing lower cut dresses and bare shoulders luring some visiting gent towards the shows and Casinos of the 'Jetée Promenade' and the Monte Carlo gambling houses.
The arrival of the railway opened up the French Riviera to a wider range of people as the journey became, not just easier, but also much quicker. The posters depicted luxury, speed and always the lure of the sun dappled coast.
More than just advertising these posters are a glimpse into the past. They tell us who was visiting, what they wore, how they liked to occupy their time and where they came from. In the 1800's the posters were often inscribed with English words. The ladies, in fashionable dresses promenaded along the sea front and carriages were drawn up outside imposing grand hotels.
They tell us that the French Riviera's visitors were wealthy, well dressed and for the most part behaved with decorum. At this time only the wealthy could travel and the arrival of all of Europes royalty to the region attracted only the most glamourous and well to do who could afford both the time and the priviledge to Winter in the South of France.
It wasn't until after the Great War and the arrival of Americans to the French Riviera that the notion of spending summers there even began to arise. However as the French Riviera swung into the spirit of the twenties the towns were naturally keen to promote the idea. So too were the train companies that would carry them to their sunny destination and the posters began to change.
They focused for the first time on the beaches rather than the Promenades and mountain views, always with the pretty local girl but this time bikini clad with her arms spread wide to herald 'Le Soleil Tout l'Année'. Sun all year round.
It took a long time to convince many of the local traders and hotels to stay open for a 'new season' despite the promise of bigger returns. The great depression of the 30's and World War II did little to assist the matter but by the time the 1950's rolled round the idea, heavily promoted in the posters artwork, had taken hold.
The 1950' and 60's saw the American literati arrive in force and, still holding onto that old school glamour, the French Riviera welcomed artists, writers and movie stars who were all keen to tread where the great and the glamourous had come before.
The style of the images remains the same. Frozen in an era, the French Riviera's heyday from the late 1800's to the early 1900's when her natural beauty; the light, the colour, the drama of her landscape captured the imagination of all who came to her shores.
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