Bleu Deschamps

Bleu Deschamps is an 1897 advertisement poster by Alphonse Mucha. It features many of the signature elements of his artistic style and was produced as a lithograph in order to promote a detergent product in France.

The poster is fairly clear in order to deliver a message to passers by, wherever the poster was used. It could not be overly complex in terms of messaging as often a poster would only receive just a short glance rather than an extended look. Therefore, the product title is placed boldly at the top, Bleu Deschamps, with the words "En Vente Ici" displayed in a strapline across the bottom. The central area is devoted to a young woman who appears to be carrying out some domestic chores. We can immediately see as to how happy and impressed she appears to be by the brightness of her clothing, no doubt as a result of using the product being advertised. The artist uses bright tones of white and light blue in order to communicate this feeling of cleanliness and hygiene, whilst the woman's clothing and headwear gives an impression of a desirable lifestyle that other women would want to aspire to. These are much the same types of advertising tricks that continue today, although it is unlikely that we would see something quite so enforcing of traditional gender roles today.

The artist was clearly reflecting cultural norms of the time, but society and technology has moved on since then. Today, she would not be washing clothes by hand, and efforts would also be made to try to avoid using only women in a domestic cleaning sense. Additionally, of course, the entire would of advertising itself has moved on too, with posters a rare commodity today. Instead, television advertising and internet video adverts would be used instead to push detergent products such as this. These types of old posters retain a level of charm and beauty, because of the artistic techniques used as well as the relative purity of society at that time. It gives a sort of romantic view of the past, which many still cling to even though, of course, there would have been just as many challenges in society at that time as there are now. There is also a historical element to Bleu Deschamps as we compare the role of women then to today, and the extra opportunities that they now receive.

Alphonse Mucha built up a strong following as an illustrator in Paris, where many different types of companies would request his services for printed posters such as this. He would never really run out of commercial partners and instead just eventually sought new challenges within his career and so moved on. Despite being constrained by the needs of each product, the artist managed to produce a consistent body of advertising posters that provide genuine interest within his career and also help to mark out the norms of that period, from the late 19th century to the early 20th. Mucha was someone who managed to achieve commercial fame in this way, working as a paid illustrator, whilst also working on more original projects such as his series of murals related to the lives of the Slavic people.