Harper’s January
1893
Edward Penfield's cover for Harper's Magazine captures the chic, flat style of American Art Nouveau perfectly, featuring a dapper gentleman in a bowler hat tipping his lid to a fashionable woman in a sweeping green gown. Both figures are casually holding copies of the very magazine they are advertising, a clever bit of self-promotion that defined the 'poster craze' of the 1890s. Penfield was a master of bold, graphic design, helping to bring this elegant simplicity to American newsstands and changing how magazines marketed themselves forever. His signature in the corner dates this specific January issue to 1895, marking a high point in his influential career.
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