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The train advertises

Written on 7 June 2018 in the category Did you know?

In 1938, the SNCB opened a central tourism office and published a series of posters with slogans linked to railway tourism.

To do so, they called upon well-known Belgian painters to turn their vision of the countryside into posters. At this time, the references to the railway are limited in favour of Belgium’s artistic treasures.

A few years later, tourism opens up to everyone. The pleasures of car and bus travel become associated with train journeys, which begin to be valued on their own merits: speed, comfort and safety. The number of train journeys abroad is multiplied and also becomes the subject of a number of representations.

With the development of television, cinema and the magazine press, the poster’s former reign is challenged. It ceases to be a work of art and instead becomes one means of communication among many, used to promote travel possibilities. The style becomes more abstract and more symbolic.