Don Quixote
The Beggarstaffs’ clear poster with black shapes against a yellow ground, for a play.
The Beggarstaffs was the name of the duo James Pryde and William Nicholson, who made posters with flat fields of colour cut from paper. The poster for Don Quixote is among their best known.
They reduced the picture to a few large shapes so that it can be seen from far away. The method inspired later poster artists.
Materials: Colour lithograph on paper
Manufacture: Printed as a lithograph in London in 1895.
Don Quixote and his horse as flat black shapes.
The yellow background.
The bold, simple lettering.