ART & ARTISTS: 2024-12-29

Friday, 3 January 2025

Charles Loupot - part 2

Charles Loupot is remembered as one of France’s most influential poster artists of the early twentieth century. Charles Henri Honoré Loupot was born in Nice, France in 1892. In 1911, he took painting lessons and experimented with lithography at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. Loupot was chosen as one of the four official poster artists to represent the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts. Loupot is one of the major creators in the history of the European poster. He is known for his posters for the furniture of the Galerie Barbès, the Voisin cars, Peugeot, Twinning tea, Valentine paintings, Ambre Solaire and above all St. Raphaël and the Canton Furs.

For more in-depth information on Charles Loupot, and for earlier works, see part 1 also.

This is part 2 of a 4-part series on the works of Charles Loupot:

c1919 Fourrures, F. Canton & Cie.
129 x 90 cm

1919 Savon de Toilette
Plantol, pour le Teint
128 x 90 cm

1919 SATO
Valse Lente, Pierre Ferraris
34 x 27 cm

c1920 Cigarettes Egypiennes, Ophir
30 x 20 cm

1920 Wäschemagazine Metzer
129 x 90 cm

1920 Philippossian & Co Cigarettes Egyptiennes: A rare, smaller-format version of one of Loupot's most compelling designs. "This Bedouin with slender fingers, with seductive eyes reminiscent of the silent film images, and the black horse all add to the Oriental feel," said Thierry DeVynk. In this case, Loupot had many discussions with the advertiser, Phillipossian, and the black stallion is a personal nod to the industrialist, who was an aficionado of amateur horse racing.

1920 Philippossian & Co
Cigarettes Egyptiennes
88 x 60.3 cm

1920 Huile Lambert
Pour La Bonne Table
128.8 x 89.8 cm

1920 Ch. Philippossian Automobiles, Genève
90 x 127.5 cm

1920s-30s Oréal: Before the Second World War, L'Oreal was not the international cosmetic giant it has since become, but the hard work of the company's founder, Eugene Schueller, helped turn the company into one of the cosmetic leaders in France. Schueller had a strong belief in the value of advertising and a good eye for innovative creation. Among the top artists he commissioned to work for his company were Charles Loupot and Raymond Savignac. With all of the company's different products, in a field where advertising was essential, L'Oreal commissioned a lot of graphics.

1920s-30s Oréal
original artwork
gouache 31.1 x 24.1 cm

1920s La Plus Économique (Lager)
80 x 60 cm

1920s Caves Petrissans
101.6 x 64.7 cm

1921 PKZ Burger-Kehl & C.
127 x 90 cm

1921 Cailler Chocolat au Lait
128 x 90 cm

c1922 Sato, cigarettes Egyptiennes
30 x 20 cm

c1922 La femme à la robe rouge et bleue
(The woman in the red and blue dress)
sketch 28 x 23 cm

1922 Orell Füssli
Arts Graphiques, Zurich
128.5 x 91 cm

1922 50ème Anniverssaire
Durable Chemises et Col
128 x 90 cm

1923 Voison Automobiles: In 1923, Gabriel Voisin, the luxury car manufacturer, commissioned Loupot (who had just returned to Paris after years in Switzerland) to design a pair of posters promoting his automobiles. The results are two dramatically different images. This poster is minimalistic, with a small red car against what is essentially an all-white background. The second image is the exact opposite - a colorless car starkly highlighted against a vividly-drawn, verdant forest depicted in a Cezanne-esque style (See Swann sale 2449 Lot 97). The effect these two images had was such that R.L. Dupuy, the head of a prominent Parisian advertising agency at the time, remarked that the posters "dropped like two stones in the frog-pond of the advertising imagination"

1923 Voison Automobiles
120 x 80 cm

1923 Les Chaussures Cecil
(Cecil Shoes)
158.6 x 113.6 cm

1923 Au Louvre
Design to promote the Grands Magasins du Louvre's annual
white sale
127 x 92 cm

c1924 Two pochoir prints of Art Deco fashion (1)
46.75 x 27.25 cm

c1924 Two pochoir prints of Art Deco fashion (2)
46.75 x 27.25 cm

1924 Grand Prix Suisse 14-15 Juin, Geneve
128 x 91 cm

1924 Fourrures Canton
24 Rue de Bourg - Lausanne
128 x 90 cm

1924-25 Frisson D'Automne
Manteau de Fourrur
(Autmn Shiver)
(Fur Coat)
24.75 x 19 cm

1925 Texaco oil, original artwork
gouache, ink and crayon
157.7 x 117.4

1925 Stop-Fire
200 x 128 cm

1925 Parfums L. T. Piver
original artwork
154.8 x 115.5 cm

1925 Foire Francfort
(Frankfurt Fair)
117.7 x 78.5 cm

1925 Fiera Internazionale, Francoforte
(International Fair Frankfurt)
148 x 98 cm

1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts
8.9 x .40 cm

1926 Dauphinet
Chocolat Fondant au Lait, Cémoi
160 x 120 cm

Wednesday, 1 January 2025

Charles Loupot - part 1

Charles Loupot (1892 – 1962) was a French poster artist and painter. He was one of France’s most significant poster artists, along with A. M. Cassandre, Paul Colin, and Jean Carlu. His pioneering use of the lithographic technique was widely celebrated across his fifty year career. Born in Nice, France, to David Loupot and Joséphine Grassi. In 1907 the family relocated to Lausanne, Switzerland, where Loupot completed his education. In 1911 Loupot was enrolled in the École des Beaux-arts de Lyon, where he took classes in painting and life drawing, and experimented with lithography. The outbreak of the first world war put an abrupt end to these studies, as Loupot was conscripted to fight and amongst the first to be sent to the front. He was quickly injured, however, and sent back to his parents in Lausanne for a period of convalescence.

Loupot moved to Paris in 1923 and began working for Maison Devambez. His innovative posters for the automobile company Voisin quickly established Loupot as a pioneering figure on the design scene. In the same year, A.M. Cassandre - with whom Loupot would later collaborate - produced 'Le Bûcheron', also representing a radical departure from the established Art Nouveau style. Loupot and Cassandre, along with Paul Colin and Jean Carlu, were nicknamed the 'Musketeers' by critics, and seen to be ushering in a new era of poster design

His studio became a popular meeting place for a range of creatives based in Lausanne, including the photographer Émile Gos, and the writer Charles Ramuz. At this time Loupot also met Marcelle Vittet, his future wife, who would model for a number of his designs

Following WW2 Loupot produced series of meticulous designs, that increasingly pushed the boundaries between abstract and figurative works. This change in his style is exemplified in his work for St-Raphaël. This shift has been ranked amongst the most iconic examples of the advertising revolution of the twentieth century. By 1950 the majority of laws against alcohol advertising had been lifted, although some restrictions remained. That year, with the help of Max Augier (by then good friends with Loupot), Loupot formed his own advertising agency, called 'Les Arcs’. Whilst St-Raphaël remained Loupot's major client, he was free to take on other commissions, and worked with Nicolas again. As with his work for St-Raphaël, Loupot's post-war Nicolas designs were radically simplified from their original inter-war appearance.

Although Loupot was most famous for his work as a commercial poster, privately he also experimented extensively with painting. These works were not intended to be sold, and were principally images of his surroundings, friends, and lovers. There is, however, some suggestion that Loupot was occasionally commissioned as a decorator at the beginning of his career in Paris, although details surrounding this are unclear. His most significant contribution to painting was the chapel, Notre-Dame-de-la-Tête-Ronde à Menou, that he decorated in the 1950s.

This is part 1 of a 4-part series on the works of Charles Loupot: