Art Deco
cappiello.fr

Leonetto Cappiello is often called the father of the Modern Poster. His posters are a sequel to the works of the artists such as Villemot, Cheret and Pal.

Cappiello was born in 1875 in the Italian resort town of Livorno, where he started to apply his natural talent for drawing at first to painting, and in fact studied art with a painter's career in mind. As a teenager, to amuse himself, he drew caricatures of the town characters, and soon found a receptive audience.
When he was 21, a collection of his hometown drawings was published as a booklet.

This may not have swayed him in itself, but a second decisive event took place in 1898, when he decided
to pay a visit to his older brother who happened to be working for the Paris Stock Exchange.
Leonetto found Paris exciting and wanted to stay longer, which meant he had to find a way to support himself. Cappiello was so enamored with the City of Light that he quickly became a naturalized citizen.
He approached two famous compatriots who happened to be in town, actor Ermete Novelli and composer
Giacomo Puccini, and asked them to let him sketch their caricatures. They obliged,and Cappiello submitted
the drawings to the humor magazine "Le Rire".They were promptly accepted, and were so well received
by the public that he became, virtually overnight, a favoured caricaturist of the Paris Theatre. His style was humorous and joyful, with bold colors and he went on to become a successful posterist just at a time when the output of the 1890's had begun to slow. Cappiello was the poster artist to work in the traditions of the nineteenth century.

Thereafter, Cappiello's drawings were seen routinely in "Le Rire" and at least a dozen of the many
magazines which proliferated in Paris during this era.

He may have remained an illustrator if one of the magazines, had not asked him to prepare a poster...
Suddenly he was inundated with work.
Cappiello had a clear antecedents in his style but he developed an entirely original approach to the means of portraying the pictorial message. By means of wide color planes and highly exaggerated colors and situations, he shocked, surprised and moved. He began his career with a very gestural style and then went on to lead the bold graphic style of the Art Deco movement as it flowered in the 1902's and 30's. A man of motion, he is credited as the first to recognize that posters should catch the eye of the motorist as well as the pedestrian. Bold and striking color combinations against often dark backgrounds create instant impact with the product message. Through fluid, swirling strokes, his people and animals come to life in front of your eyes. Where earlier poster artists sought to paint an entire scene or elaborate cast of characters, Cappiello was an ad man's dream - a designer who understood the value of sheer visual impact in delivering a sales message. No wonder he was so often commissioned by manufactures of an array of products, ballets, literature, plays and music halls, champagne and spirits bottles and even travel, including cars, beverages, cigarettes, corsets, perfumes, soaps, household products and chocolate. Less frequently he would also be commissioned by cabaret performers and the Follies Bergere. Before WWI, most of Cappiello's posters were printed by the firm Vercasson.After World War I, Cappiello would continue to produce posters with unmistakable talent, usually printed by Devambez.

He produced approximately 3,000 lithographic posters,not only for French clients but for advertisers all over Europe, making him the most prestigious artist in the history of the lithographic poster.

Cappiello's work today is fetching very high prices, for example"Contratto"(woman holding up the
cascading champagne) sold in NY. Auction Nov. 1999, for US $ 5,520.00.

His posters are receiving increased exposure and attracting new collectors.
In 1981, a major retrospective of Cappiello's work was presented at the Galerie Nationale du Grand Palais in Paris. ...

(PLease Login to see the complete biography.)