Bicycle Advertisement or Sexual Experience? Alphonse Mucha’s, Waverly Cycles
Alphonse Mucha’s, Waverly Cycles, 1898 is a colour lithography poster designed to sell bicycles to the late 19th century British consumer. This particular graphic design represents the style implicated by the Art Nouveau movement, most specifically France which is where this Paris based Czechoslovakian artist worked and lived. The name of the company “Waverly Cycles”, is positioned directly at the top, emphasizing on Waverly. The title being as prominent as it is with its stark contrast of colour, white on red, is a key element in understanding that this poster was designed for a company that manufactures bicycles. The red background also really highlights the female figure, almost creating this illusion that she is not in the poster but directly in front of you. She is the focal point, being that she is positioned directly center and large enough to fill the frame completely; hiding the fact that she is even sitting on a bicycle at all for that matter. The hand drawn type consists of two different styles, Waverly being slab serif and cycles being san serif. The geometric pattern at the top of the poster intertwined behind the title and the figure is a representation of arabesques design. This was a term that was coined during the Art Nouveau period that described decorative patterns that add a sense of whimsical, architectural influence.
In this graphic design we see that Mucha has used a definite more European stylistic approach to the cycle brand, illustrating a curvilinear style to the figure indicating Mucha’s signature organic form. This is present within the fluidity of the woman’s dress, a representation of Rococo inspiration, signifying nudity and sexuality by the bareness of her chest almost exposing her breasts completely. “An icon of jouissance, her image is one of the earliest examples of a favourite theme of advertising: the implicit promise of sexual availability that will be awarded to the male purchasers of the product.” (Eskilson p. 64) The European audience was accustomed to the sexual undertones within advertisements, although the British mentality was quite reserved regardless of its European roots. Mucha’s approach and philosophy behind his style created a romantic involvement with the product which was an Art Nouveau mindset. Using Mucha, there was really no escaping that representation of sexual undertones, a desire to focus on the sensual desires of the subconscious mind.
There is a Symbolist influence with the clear representation of “art for art’s sake”, it’s not what the bike can do but how you can look and feel by investing in one. The advertisement somewhat neglects to portray the usage of the bicycle, such as, mobility, transportation, travel but instead suggesting an experience. “They have highly eroticized physical features, often paired and in harmony with sensual floral imagery. As such he both reflects and encourages the acceptance of female sexuality.” (Blattner, 7) By portraying the lush beauty as the main focus, this poster creates a leisure, slow down the time mentality. The bouquet of foliage the woman is holding, as she leans on an anvil and hammer, a representation of the Industrial Revolution, indicates an easy lifestyle. In the late nineteenth century, artists and companies worked together to bring advertisements to the public that focused on the lives of young women. In doing so this made the average woman feel as if they were capable of achieving this sense of beauty and grace. Women started to be encouraged to step out of their projected roles as a subservient being and into a more active member of society.
When looking at the advertisement for Waverly Cycles, the idea of sensual delight through a woman’s experience is vividly present. It was the first time in history that women were allowed to be represented as part of the collective. “…Mucha created an immediately recognizable and idealized feminine type that he employed in all manner of advertisements, as well as for cigarette papers, soap, beer and bicycles. The figure had something of the carnal gaiety of Cheret’s hedonistic blondes and red-heads, whose voluptuous silhouettes emerge from strict corsets; the morbid melancholy and refinement of the pre-Raphaelite muses; and the dangerous attraction of the fin-de-siecle’s femme fatale – all elements that Mucha combined to various degrees.” (Jean Lahor, p. 124) He did this by portraying the women in his illustrations more on the lines of, Venus the goddess, opposed to an average everyday middle class female. There is a clear indication of the femme fatale aspect that manipulates the buyer, men and women into believing they can achieve this similar sense of luxury. Her loose up-do, and nonchalant glare into the audience captivates the viewer into fantasizing what it would be like to own a product that could attract such abundance and beauty into their own personal mundane lives.
Blattner, Sarah (2015) "Alphonse Mucha and the Emergence of the “New Woman” during the Belle Époque (1871–1914)," Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado: Vol. 4 : No. 3 , Article 1.
Eskilson, Stephen J. Graphic Design A New History, Second Edition. Yale University
Lahor, Jean. Art Nouveau, Parkstone International, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/oculocad-ebooks/detail.action?docID=886833.
Created from oculocad-ebooks on 2019-01-29 13:26:01.
