In the 18th and 19th centuries, silhouette portraits(top right) became popular, and this particular style was also to influence modern street art. Then with the big success of two famous French art movements: Art Nouveau, from 1890-1914, and Art Deco, from the 1920's and 1930's, stencilling took off again in a big way. The beautiful flowing, plant-vine like lines of Art Nouveau (middle pictures) and the crisp, elegant lines of Art Deco(bottom picture) were a very happy match with stencils. Modern Paris street artists are still influenced by both.
As well, a huge influence was the comic strip, which really started to come into its own in the 20th century. One of the most influential of the early comic-book artists was the American Winsor McCay, whose 'Little Nemo' series (published around 1903--top left picture)inspired an explosion of comic-book talent--in Belgium, for instance, the publication of Little Nemo in French was directly responsible for the flourishing of what they call there the 'Ninth Art', as famous a Belgian product as chocolates or beer! Tintin and co owe their existence to such an inspiration. But it also greatly influenced, even many, many years down the track, a whole generation of street artists--and in Paris, especially Nemo, of course.
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