Albert Robida - Card Designs from Middle Ages to Distant Future
Albert Robida (1848-1926) was a caricaturist, designer, editor, writer, poster artist, illustrator, and, of course, postcard artist.
During his career, he created hundreds of picture cards for numerous occasions. Robida's most productive years were at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, when the postcard business tremendously expanded, printing techniques improved almost daily, many marketing opportunities occurred, and even the postal service had to adapt.
From the humble beginnings with experimentation with colors, the production of cards rapidly grew to hundreds of millions of printed cards per year. A whole new market for artists opened, and Robida grabbed the opportunity with both hands. What were the most popular motifs?
In France, pictures of castles were the obvious choice.
Scenes from history were another option. Below we can see scenes from the story of Joan d'Arc. It's a heroic story with an unhappy ending, something we don't expect on today's cards.
Some of the portrayed scenes can't even be imagined to be printed today. An image of the torture tower below is a perfect example.
When merchants started giving the so-called trading cards to their customers, they saw an opportunity to expand their brands with lovely collectible images. The back of such a card looked more like today's business card.
Yet, they soon noticed that it's much better if you allow the customer to send such card by post and spread the word. Postal rules were simple - one side for the picture, the other for the address. Postcard artists, like Albert Robida, had to leave some space on the picture for optional messages. This caused some anger among the senders, who wanted to write more, and the receivers, who wanted to enjoy the picture without scrabbles.
The market for collectors started developing niches. Some people collected used postcards (higher documentary value), some unused only (higher artistic value).
These postcards were actually trading cards given by the chocolate producer Guerin-Boutron, a luxury brand, established in 1775. They were pioneers in several areas (the first producers of vanilla-flavored chocolate, for instance), excelling in marketing (the first chocolate company with collectible images on packages), and winning at numerous competitions. The company went into bankruptcy in 1942, but the brand was restored in 2016 in Brussels by Johann Domas-Conzemius as a prestigious craft chocolate producer.
Albert Robida sometimes fused marketing campaigns in newspapers, magazines, posters, and picture postcards. Everything for better brand recognition - this is a fine example of synergy.
As we can see, the postal service eventually adapted to the market and introduced a change - the side with the image stayed as it was, leaving the artists complete freedom, the other side became divided - one half for the address and the stamp, the other for the message.
While marketing was always in the first plan, Robida still created the majority of his postcard designs with scenes from Paris.
He was one of the fathers of science fiction who predicted many changes in society. This is how he imagined Paris a century after his time.
Paris by Night
Visiting Opera in the Future
Albert Robida wrote several books, including Carcassone (image above), and also illustrated many works by others. To explore his work even further, you are invited to check his illustrations of Perrault's fairy tales.
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