The Sun 1896

Louis Rhead created this advertising poster for ‘The Sun’ newspaper. The artwork immediately draws you into a stylized world where the colours are richly saturated and the lines are deliberately bold and curving, evoking the aesthetics of Art Nouveau. Notice how Rhead uses the formal elements to construct a scene that borders on the allegorical. A figure, draped in a rust-colored robe, stands as if contemplating the landscape before her. Her robe is adorned with sun-like motifs, suggesting a symbolic connection to the newspaper being advertised. A winding blue river cuts through the composition, leading the eye towards a stylized sunset, framed by the geometric forms of trees. The composition uses flattened space and decorative patterns which challenges traditional depth. The careful arrangement of these elements creates a visual language that moves beyond simple representation, to a deeper conceptual play, characteristic of the period's exploration into the symbolic and the subjective. Art does not have a singular meaning, but is always open to ongoing interpretation.