The Beggarstaffs — Don Quixote (1895)

The design that helped invent modern graphic design — cut paper and flat silhouette, 1895, for a Don Quixote poster the theatre refused to hang.

The document

The original cut-paper collage design (V&A: “not issued as a poster”), reproduced faithfully — the aged paper of the object is part of the piece.

About the artist

“The Beggarstaffs” was James Pryde and William Nicholson, who for a few years in the 1890s made the most radical posters in Britain — reductive, flat, decades ahead.

The print

Printed to order and made to last. Choose Museum Matte (heavyweight matte art paper) or Fine Art Giclée (Hahnemühle cotton paper — the archival standard). The Métrica museum caption — artist, title, date and source — is printed as part of the piece, set in our house type. Free US shipping on orders over $75.

The Beggarstaffs · Don Quixote, cut-paper collage · 1895 · Victoria and Albert Museum, London · Accession E.1208-1927 · Public domain.