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Postering a Region

Poster of the Gaspé Peninsula, with a simple and modern graphic design. In the foreground, a man on the beach leans on a sailboat. At his feet an anchor lies on the beach. In a luminous atmosphere of a sunset, the man observes the Percé Rock, massive and imposing, giving the impression of being an immense liner that advances in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In the blue sky above the rock is written: La Péninsule de Gaspé Peninsula.

Poster

La Péninsule de Gaspé Peninsula, 1948.

Ernest Senécal

Canadian Poster Collection

Rare Books and Special Collections

McGill University Library

What is the most beautiful poster or publication ever created to promote the Gaspé?

lllustrator Ernest Senécal created this poster in 1944 for the Office du tourisme de la province du Québec. Entitled LA PÉNINSULE DE GASPÉ PENINSULA, it features the prow of Percé Rock, but seen from a new angle. A sculpted sailor gazes in awe and admiration at Percé Rock that pierces the shallow seascape like a sleek battleship.

Striking in its modernity, the Gaspé poster is much different from the other posters Senécal produced at the same time to promote Quebec that remained in the comfortable confines of nostalgia and fall colours. Poster historian Mark Choko describes it as “without question the most successful of the four posters created by Senécal for the Office du tourisme.”

What makes a promotional poster successful? You be the judge.