From Epinal and beyond seas
Under the production of company Pellerin, the Épinal stencil-colored woodcuts have, from 1860 to 1960, pictured the complex dialectic between popular imaging and diplomatic scene through French colonial expansion.
Épinal prints have been spread throughout the globe from China to Morocco, from India to Cameroun during the first half of 20th century. Ordered by expatriates or home-country souvenirs taken in a travel suitcase, coupon in a chocolate bar or poster advertising products of Liège Grand Bazar, Chagnon & Co. in New York or Aurora Orellana in Mexico, they have been a widely appreciated sales support and own ambassadors of this Vosges product.
The sales archives of Imagerie Pellerin, left for storage by Imagerie d’Épinal S.A. at the Archives départementales des Vosges, allow studying the international perspective in this process of creation and distribution of pictures in French or other languages. Sales strategies, distributors network, catalogue, models diversity or made to order prints explain the unique geographic spread of Imagerie Pellerin, which influenced the popular imaging beyond Europe, as seen in the Indian imaging.
Based on a Conseil général des Vosges initiative, the exhibition « D’Épinal au-delà des mers » / “From Epinal and beyond seas” benefited from the collaboration of four institutions, which all carry a share of the history of this Vosges patrimony: the Archives départementales des Vosges, the Musée départemental d’art ancien et contemporain, the Imagerie d’Épinal S.A. and the Musée de l’Image in Épinal.
