ART & ARTISTS: 2025

Monday, 6 January 2025

Charles Loupot - part 3

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 see part 1, and for earlier works, see parts 1 & 2 also.

This is part 3 of a 4-part series on the works of Charles Loupot:

1926 Wanneroil
Huile du Bon Chauffeur
(Good Driver Oil)
162 x 1116.75 cm

1926 Peugeot
La Grande Marque Nationale
158.75 x 116.25 cm

1927 55 Bd. Barbès Meubles
Galeries Barbès
197 x 126 cm

1928 Valentine Peinture Émail
(Valentime Enamel Paint)
160 x 119.4 cm

1928 O CAP
Pour les Cheveux (For Hair)
159 x 117 cm

1928 Le Tracteur Austin
120 x 83 cm

1928 femina
magazine cover
65.5 x 50 cm

1928 Mirus Poêlle a Bois
(Mirus Wood Stove)
Fonderies de Tréveray (stove makers)
119 x 79 2 cm

1929 Mira, La Lame de Précision
(razor blades)
158 x 117 cm

1929 Malacéïne
(toiletries)
57.3 x 39.5 cm

1929 Café Precia
154.2 x 112.5 cm

1929 Café Precia
79.4 x 59.8 cm

c1929 Valentine La Belle Peinture
(Valentine the beautiful painting)
128 x 91 cm

1929 Valentine paint artwork
watercolour, ink and crayon
152.6 x 117.6 cm

1929 Valentine paint
31 x 24 cm

1930 Stop Fire
(fire extinguishers, adaptable especially for automobiles)
120.3 x 79.7 cm

1930 GIC
Glace-Crème, Ch. Gervais
50.2 x 32 cm

1930 Cointreau: Loupot created two posters for Cointreau using the image of the commedia dellarte clown Pierrot; one male and one female, as seen here. Pierrot had been a staple of advertising for more than 30 years and Loupot was brought in to give a much-needed update to the clown. Loupot abstracts and stylises the character into Cubist forms defined by a textural orange peel which refers to the sour orange whose peel flavours this curaçao liqueur. The clowns nose clip is not just an eye-catching device. Loupot borrowed the accessory from photographs of the famed mime artist Najac as Pierrot.

1930 Cointreau
159.5 x 119 cm

1930 Cointreau
157.1 x 115.5 cm

1930 Twining (Tea)
40 x 30 cm

c1930 St. Raphael Quinquina
17 x 12.5 cm

c1930 Point of sale display for Nicolas Wine
58.7 cm high

c1930 Frigor
original artwork for for Cailler Swiss Chocolates Frigor brand
140.4 x 96 cm

1931 Valentine (paint)
31 x 23.2 cm

1931 Monseigneur Nectar
gouache and ink original artwork
156.2 x 117.6 cm

1931 La Glace Securit Se Brise Sans Eclats Couants
(Safety glass shatters without shards)
120 x 80 cm

1931 L’Oréal Imédia
(details not found)

Friday, 3 January 2025

Charles Loupot - part 2

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"