Le Nil Elephant

Leonetto Cappiello, often called the Father of the Modern Poster, used his best artistic talents in portraying the beautiful elephant that is central to this poster. The actual product being promoted is the cigarette paper made by the Le Nil Company. The elephant is their corporate logo and Cappiello uses a mixture of fine artwork and color blending to create this detailed image. In our era, this poster is especially attractive because of its desirable horizontal format.

Joseph Bardou created a cigarette paper in 1845 titled J.B. which was quickly renamed to JOB. In the 1870’s Bardou’s cigarette paper began regularly shipping a large portion of supply to Egypt. With this large customer base, JOB renamed itself to Le Nil, after the Nile River and began using marketing tools that integrated iconic associations of Egyptian culture such as pyramids, palm trees and as seen in this poster, an elephant. Le Nil no longer exists as a company today.

Leonetto Cappiello (1875-1942) was an Italian poster artist who worked in Paris. He is known for modernizing advertising design for the 20th Century. His compositions are uncomplicated and often feature a graceful figure with an oversized rendition of the product against a simple color background. The typography is often minimized to be as direct and short as possible. This innovation allowed for the advertising to be eye-catching and understood at a moments’ glance. It was ideal for the fast paced travel and attention of busy city life.

To learn more about the artwork of Cappiello, please follow this link: https://postergroup.com/blogs/the-ross-art-group-blog/for-the-love-of-cappiello

This is an Original Vintage Poster; it is not a reproduction. This poster is conservation mounted, linen backed, and in excellent condition. We guarantee the authenticity of all of our posters.