Artist · 16 prints
Ethel Reed Prints
About Ethel Reed
Ethel Reed was an American poster designer and illustrator, born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1874. She was largely self-taught, with only brief study of drawing, including a short time at the Cowles Art School in Boston in 1893. While still in her early twenties she became one of Boston's leading poster artists, working for publishers such as Copeland & Day and Lamson, Wolffe & Co. In 1897 she moved to London, where she drew for the literary quarterly The Yellow Book. She died in 1912.
Reed's posters, most made between 1895 and 1897, advertise new books, magazines and the Boston Sunday Herald. They show her Art Nouveau style: long curving lines and young women framed by flowers, hair and lettering, often in a few flat colours. Her poster for Richard Le Gallienne's novel The Quest of the Golden Girl (1897) was reproduced in the French series Les Maîtres de l'Affiche. Her work is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian and the Delaware Art Museum.
Ethel Reed prints: reproductions of the American Art Nouveau book and magazine posters Ethel Reed designed in Boston between 1895 and 1897. The collection includes Arabella and Araminta Stories (1895), The House of the Trees and Other Poems (1895), The Boston Sunday Herald, Ladies Want It (1895), The Penny Magazine (1896) and The Quest of the Golden Girl (1897).
This selection focuses on Reed's posters for books of stories, poems and fairy tales, along with her series for the Boston Sunday Herald and a guide to Boston. Most feature a single young woman or child with flowers or a book, set against flat colour with hand-drawn lettering.
The soft colours and literary subjects suit bedrooms, reading corners, studies and dressing rooms, and the posters work well hung in pairs. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
