Friday’s ad is for Bier seit Jahrtausenden, or Beer – in For Millennia, from 1951. From the late 1800s until the 1960s, poster art really came into its own, and in Europe a lot of really cool posters, many of them for breweries, were produced. In addition to posters and other promotional materials, the German Brewers Association also produced calendars promoting their beer beginning in 1951. This is the September/October page from the 1951 calendar, and one website claims this is an illustration by German artist Heinz Fehling, but it’s obviously not. It’s a fairly famous painting known as “Rembrandt And Saskia In The Parable Of The Prodigal Son,” although its official name is “The Prodigal Son in the Brothel,” by Rembrandt van Rijn. I suppose it’s possible Fehling copied it for the calendar, but I doubt it. It’s impossible to read, but the text in upper left-hand corner is “Joy, joy and conviviality brings cool beer for millennia.”
