Consumer Technologies and Celebrity Culture

Abstract

A poster by Rouchon announces the “Palais de Cristal (Crystal Palace),” (c.1853) with an image of Joseph Paxton’s iron-and-glass palace in London built for the Great Exhibition of 1851.¹ A Union Jack flies at the top. The poster in fact advertises a shop called Le Palais de Cristal, made clear by the line “CLOTHES FOR MEN.” Here a famous building is used to advertise a shop. Another poster by Rouchon, for the shop Au Paradis des Dames from 1856, features bourgeois women in front of red curtains as if they’re on stage, accompanied by a male clerk showing merchandise. The presence of other women behind the curtains heightens the sense of anticipation. The poster announces “Known for selling at very good prices,” “PERMANENT EXHIBITION,” and “FREE ENTRY.”² Rouchon’s posters, Vallet de Viriville wrote in the Revue de Paris in 1853, “are carpeting the walls of Paris,” leading “each day to new and interesting tries and experiments.”³ This comment, made in passing in an article devoted to artistic printing techniques, attests to the widespread visibility of Rouchon’s colorful posters and also the aesthetic appreciation for the posters despite their commercial function.