Épinal prints: what are they?

They originated in a print shop founded in 1796 in the French municipality of Épinal, in the Vosges department: "L'imagerie d’Épinal," founded by Jean-Charles Pellerin.

Its location was good for business. Beside the Moselle river and the forests that enabled the manufacture of paper, there were many artisan playing-card and printed-paper makers, which allowed Pellerin to very quickly expand his business (which began as an artisanal family affair) into an incredible industry well known outside France.

Thanks to mobile peddlers, in the late 19th century and into the 20th, Épinal prints were well known around the world.

Definition: an Épinal print is a print depicting a popular subject using bright colors.

In the beginning, the prints were first engraved on wood blocks then printed on paper, using a Gutenberg-type lever press: this was known as xylography.

Around the 1850s, Pellerin replaced this procedure with lithography, which then used lithographic stone plates that revolutionized printing.

Once the pattern was printed on the page, it was the colorist's job to use a stencil to apply the well-known vibrant colors of the Épinal print.

In the 19th century, l'imagerie d'Épinal developed a business aimed at children, making riddles, snakes-and-ladders games, and card games. But it is the propaganda images glorifying Napoleon I to which Épinal prints owed their rise.

Today, l'Imagerie d’Épinal still exists. Still in its original premises in the town center, the "Maison Imagerie d’Épinal" preserves its exceptional historical heritage by running the Imagerie as two endeavors: a museum that allows visitors to see the production workshops on one hand, and on the other, the business giving new life to these images that are so well known worldwide.

Since 2014, the business has put its machines (which are unique in France) back into service, and it offers a wide variety of images, items, and interior decorations, using the codes of the famous Épinal prints.