The height of the absinthe boom in the late 19th century, coincided with the rise of the large lithographic advertising poster as a powerful commercial and artistic medium – pioneered by the work of Jules Chéret. Some of the greatest poster artists of the period – Cappiello, Privat-Livemont, Lefevre, Tamagno – created famous images to advertise the absinthe grand marques. Fortunately, the greatest of them all, Toulouse Lautrec, never produced an absinthe-specific poster, thus thoughtfully sparing future generations of absinthiana collectors the necessity of a potentially financially ruinous purchase….
