RARE examples of art from the dawn of modern advertising have gone on show at a North-East museum.

The posters on display at Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, portray a wild and decadent Paris at odds with life across the channel in Victorian Britain.

Many of the paintings in the Toulouse-Lautrec and the Art of the French Poster exhibition have not been seen since 1894, when they were featured in a similar exhibition at the London Aquarium.

The posters have been loaned to Bowes Museum by the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The exhibition focuses on how French posters and advertising became an artform, starting with the work of Jules Cheret from the late-1880s.

It includes a section on the work of Toulouse-Lautrec, one of the best artists in the genre.

Exhibition curator Howard Coutts said: "This is probably one of the most comprehensive displays of his posters for at least 15 years.

"He came to the original exhibition in London and so many of these posters would have been seen by him."

While the risqu subjects of scantily clad women and dancers in shows, including the Moulin Rouge, in Paris, were a common sight in France, English audiences were both delighted and scandalised when they were shown in London in 1894.

One visitor to the show wrote to London City Council complaining about the "collection of indecent French posters".

However, a review in the Newcastle Daily Leader said: "How much Paris is ahead of us may now be clearly perceived at the aquarium, where all the more striking Parisian posters are on view.

"A vast amount of talent, and even genius, is expended on these things. They are carrying decorative art towards new boundaries."

The production of posters using lithography was a relatively new process, and artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec were inspired by impressionist artists and Japanese paintings when making their posters.

Toulouse-Lautrec, in particular, simplified his paintings and used large areas of flat colour to attract people's attention to the poster.

Mr Coutts said: "These were at the birth of advertising, but I do not think people have done anything better or more effective since then.

"I grew up with these posters being reproduced at Athena, but the originals still look fantastic now.

"We are always wanting to do something different that is not normally seen in the North-East, and much of our art at the Bowes is leading up to this period of time.

"John and Josephine Bowes may have actually seen early examples of these posters."

The exhibition is at the museum until March 13.

Published: 16/09/2004