The Big Shot 1949 French Grande Film Poster, Boris Grinsson

We adore Boris Grinsson's sumptuous design for classic 40s film-noir The Big Shot. Superb colours and design on this incredibly rare first-year-of-release French Grande film poster.

The Big Shot starring Humphrey Bogart was released in the US in 1942 but didn't get its release in France until after the war in 1949.

Boris Grinsson (1907 - 1999) was a renowned Russian born French artist famous for drawing the designs for over 2000 French film posters for American, Italian, and French films during a career spanning forty years (from the 1930s to the 1970s). He produced a vast body of work in a variety of genres, including This Gun for Hire (1942), Gilda (1946), The Lady from Shanghai (1948) and From Russia with Love (1963).

▼France has a long and rich history in poster design that dates back to the mid-19th century.... CLICK TO READ MORE

One of the most influential figures in the development of vintage posters was the French poster artist Jules Chéret. Around 1866, Chéret is credited with producing the first colour lithograph posters, using a technique he refined from the black and white process first invented by German actor and playwright Alois Senefelder in 1798. Cheret's three stone lithographic process allowed artists to achieve every colour in the rainbow using just three stones - usually red, yellow and blue - printed in careful registration.

The Parisian artists, headed by Cheret and including masters Steinlen, Willette, Grasset, Bonnard, Forain and, last but certainly not least, Toulouse-Lautrec's vibrant and eye-catching designs influenced, in part, by Japanese Woodcuts brought a new level of visual appeal to the streets of Paris and, in turn, established the poster as an art form.

The Belle Époque (Beautiful Era), a period of peace and frivolity in France from the late 19th to the early 20th century (1870-1914), played a significant role in the continued advancement of poster design. This era coincided with economic growth and the rise of a new middle class with disposable income and leisure time. It was during this time that the poster craze took hold in France, with posters being used for advertising various products, events, and entertainment.

Over the decades that followed from these auspicious beginnings French poster design continued to flourish and designers from around the world followed suit in experimenting with poster design for advertisements for cultural events, travel, film, food and drink and more.

This original vintage movie poster has been professionally linen-backed is sized an impressive 44 1/2 x 60 1/2 inches (plus a little more with the linen). It will be sent rolled (unframed).

• Year: 1949
  
• Poster Type: French Grande
  
• Style: -
• Art By:  Boris Grinsson
  
• Rolled/Folded/Other: Rolled - Linen-backed
  
• Condition: Near Mint
  
• Condition Details: Light touch-up to folds, linen slightly wavy. Fantastic condition for its age. Looks fantastic.