Benzo-Moteur - pour Automobiles

With «Benzo-Moteur», Jules Chéret (1836 – 1932), following his absolute heyday around 1890, rose to top form once again and delivered an outstanding work. One reason was likely that Chéret found himself confronted with a product for which there was hardly any market before the turn of the century and for which virtually no one—and certainly not a master of Chéret's stature—had yet advertised: gasoline.

It may come as a surprise that in his work, the ladies do the driving while the gentleman in the background rests his hands in his lap. After all, driving the first automobiles—despite Bertha Benz—was a man's domain. Chéret, however, was always concerned with the most attractive and, in the best sense, striking depiction possible. Women at the wheel achieved the desired effect,

Trained as a printer and lithographer, Jules Chéret is the undisputed father of the modern poster. It was he who gave vibrant colors to the monotonous advertising posters that had emerged in the wake of industrialization, using a process he developed after years of tinkering—and at still economical costs. In addition, he was one of the very first to integrate lettering into the image, using it as part of the motif, and relied on flat rather than detailed depictions. In doing so, he banished dreariness from posters and ushered in the age of the «gallery of the street.».

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