Poster for Simplicissimus

This poster by the artist Thomas Theodor Heine from 1896 advertises the illustrated weekly published by Albert Langen’s Verlag, Munich. Heine was a consummate master of the art reducing images to their essentials and then rendering them in what appears to be one single flowing line. This economy never implied a loss of elegance, however.

Simplicissimus was a weekly publication from Germany, founded by Albert Langen and ran from April 1896 to 1967, with a hiatus in 1944-1954. Langen’s inspiration for the magazine was the satirical publications that he saw during the late 1800s, such as Punch, Le Rire, and L’Assiette au Beurre.

Throughout its history, Simplicissimus published works of notable artists such as Eduard Thony, Henrich Kley, Jules Pascin, Bruno Paul, Ragnavald Blix, Karl Arnold, George Grosz, Rudolf Wilke, Thomas Theodor Heine, Käthe Kollwitz, Olaf Gulbransson, Wilhelm Schulz, and many others.