Beggarstaff Brothers

THE BEGGARSTAFF BROTHERS

The Beggarstaff Brothers were active in the last years of the 19th century (1894-99). “Beggarstaff, J & W” was actually the pseudonym (borrowed from a feedsack in thebarn!) used by William Nicholson (1872-1949) and James Pryde (1866-1941), two brothers-in-law who created amazing cut-paper illustrations for poster advertisements. Both men were respected painters, butfeared that their reputation would suffer from an association with commercial art. Today they are remembered primarily for the innovative designs that they created under their assumed name. Their cleandesigns, bold colors, and suggested lines were all extremely influential in the development of modernist style in the early 1900s.
The original Kassama Corn Flour was produced by The BeggarstaffBrothers in 1900. This is not a facsimile or scan of the original poster, but my faithful 'cover version'. The original was created using cut-out paper, mine has been entirely reproduced digitally. Ihave, however, tried to stay close and faithful to the spirit of the original's rough cuts, basing the shapes on a good sized reproduction. The colours of the original are, by now, quite faded, andrather than quote those, I have recreated the vividness of what they may have looked like. This is my favourite historical poster, and I mainly did this so I could have a great version for my own wall.The artist used simple design and simple color but still have a point across. He worked with contour lines, and there are no values or shadows. Although the color is flat it has great feel to itbecause usage of colors and shapes.
1A.1 [f.a. Hamlet poster (1A)]. Color lithographic reproduction. Four-color lithograph: pale grey, buff, brown and black. William Nicholson and James Pryde (TheBeggarstaff Brothers). Printed by Imprimerie Chaix, Paris, 1898. Signed in image lower left: J. W. Beggarstaff. Denham Uxbridge. Image: ?" w. x ?" h. Sheet: 11 3/8 " w. x 15 3/4 " h. (29,0 cm w. x 40,0 cm...