Wine Country Posters: Collection of George and Denise Rose
Apr 17 - Jun 21, 2009
The history of printmaking in California actually has a direct connection to wine making in Sonoma County. The Korbel Brothers established a successful lithography company in San Francisco in the 1870s, initially for the purpose of adorning redwood cigar boxes. In the 1880s, they turned their attention to the Russian River wines and brandies that still bear their name, but not before making an impact in the production of prints on the west coast. It was not long after the Korbels’ foray into printing that advances in technology allowed for the production of large-format, full-color pictures in great quantities at low cost, further expanding the use of posters for advertisement and promotion.
Many of the early wine related prints emphasized imagery of the harvest or grape crush, such as Paul Frenzeny’s well-known image created for Harper’s Weekly in 1878 titled “The Vintage in California.” The use of imagery or descriptions of California as an agricultural paradise were frequently employed by regional promoters seeking to draw people west. Scenes of the grape harvest and wine production were an important part of California’s image. Early wine poster designs also frequently evoked scenes of Arcadian pleasure seeking and leisure as a means of product promotion. The earliest poster in the collection exhibited here is a 1934 Korbel advertisment depicting a woman reaching for a bunch of grapes. She appears to be wearing a draped garment, vaguely reminiscent of classical Greek attire. It is such associations and appeals to the pre-existing notions of the viewer that are at the core of poster design.
The printing advances of the nineteenth century and early efforts to create a visual language of wine, are tiny in comparison to the massive output of recent years. The contemporary wine country posters of the 1980s and 1990s, and running up through today, utilize the talents of hundreds of graphic artists, painters and photographers, many from the San Francisco Bay Area. As wine has become more popular across the country, posters have become an integral part of many winery marketing and event promotions. This exhibit represents a tiny fraction of the promotional and advertising posters created on behalf of wineries. There are many mediums represented·from photography to watercolors, oil paintings to pen and ink drawings. Each poster depicts something of the essence of this place we call “wine country.” The Sonoma County Museum would like to thank George and Denise Rose for this exhibit and their gift of more than 300 posters. These posters will add further dimension to the Museum’s growing North Coast wine country collection. The exhibition was sponsored by Kendall Jackson Family Wineries.
