Vintage Poster Archives
Steinlen Girl Cats 1894 | French Milk Poster
Steinlen Girl Cats 1894 | French Milk Poster
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A young girl in scarlet holds her milk bowl with both small hands while three cats sit in patient hope below. The afternoon light catches her blonde hair, the cream background glows with domestic warmth. Steinlen painted what he knew: his daughter Colette, his cats, the tender moments that make a household.
Commissioned by the Quillot Brothers dairy in 1894, this poster introduced Parisians to sterilized milk, shipped fresh from the Vingeanne countryside. The Swiss-born artist chose intimacy over proclamation, letting family affection carry the commercial message. His Art Nouveau script flows like water, his palette speaks of safety and nourishment.
Steinlen belonged to the Montmartre circle alongside Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Willette, but where his peers favoured nightlife and spectacle, he found poetry in daylight scenes. Here was an artist who understood that the strongest selling proposition is often the quietest: a child who drinks her milk contentedly, cats who trust they will be remembered.
Printed as an archival reproduction on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper.
