Fragrance History · The Met
Louis John Rhead’s 1895 color lithograph advertising Lundborg’s Vio-Violet perfume is a striking example of how fine illustration and fragrance marketing intertwined during the golden age of American poster art.
Essential Details
Poster at a Glance
| Artist | Louis John Rhead (1857–1926) |
| Publisher | Lundborg Perfumes |
| Date | 1895 |
| Medium | Color lithograph |
| Collection | Leonard A. Lauder Collection of American Posters, The Met |
A Golden Age of Poster Advertising
Louis John Rhead — an English-born artist who made his career in America — was a leading figure in the 1890s poster movement, a period when advertising leaned heavily on fine illustration rather than photography. His lithograph for Lundborg’s Vio-Violet shows a woman in a floral dress scattering violets, tying the fragrance directly to its namesake flower through pure visual storytelling.
Fragrance Marketing as Fine Art
This poster is a reminder that fragrance advertising has never been purely commercial — it has consistently drawn on the leading visual art movements of its era, from Rhead’s Art Nouveau-adjacent illustration work in the 1890s to today’s high-production fragrance campaigns.
Why It Survives at The Met
The piece is now held in The Met’s Leonard A. Lauder Collection of American Posters — a significant collection documenting exactly this period of American commercial art, and a sign of how seriously fragrance advertising’s visual history is taken by major museums today.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who created the Vio-Violet perfume poster?
Louis John Rhead, an English-born American illustrator, created the 1895 color lithograph advertising Lundborg’s Vio-Violet perfume.
Where is the poster held today?
It’s part of The Met’s Leonard A. Lauder Collection of American Posters.