POSTER: LEONETTO CAPPIELLO (1875-1942). LE PE

LEONETTO CAPPIELLO (1875-1942) LE PETIT DAUPHINOIS. 1933.
35 1/2x62 inches, 90x157 1/2 cm. Devambez, Paris.
Condition A-: vertical and horizontal folds; repaired tears at edges.
Cappiello was the most influential poster artist of the first quarter of the 20th Century, and also the most prolific. He began his career as a caricaturist for Parisian magazines, a style that is reflected in his earliest posters. By 1903, Cappiello had moved on and invented a new approach to poster design that featured brightly colored animals or characters that stuck in the public's mind so forcibly that they immediately become associated with the brand being promoted. With the Art Deco movement sweeping through artistic circles in the mid 1920s, Cappiello changed to a more stylized approach to design. He maintained a unique, identifiable style and kept on finding humorous and magnetic graphic solutions for his posters that kept him at the top of the advertising community. By the time he designed this poster for a French newspaper, he was already 58 years old, and yet it is clear that his creativity was as fresh as ever. The concept of a journalist with the "world in his eyes," transcribing what he sees into the pages of the publication proves to be a mesmerizing design. Although executed towards the end of his career, this is one of Cappiello's most spectacular and rarest posters. Rennert / Cappiello 509, Cappiello, 337.