Lefevre-Utile Biscuits
Artist
Firmin Bouisset
France, 1859 - 1925
Printer
Affiches Camis, Paris
France
Date1897
Dimensions49 x 35 1/4 in. (124.5 x 89.5 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.4160
DescriptionFirmin Bouisset’s poster promotes the “petit-beurre” biscuit that was (and remains) the signature product of the Lefèvre-Utile company, founded in Nantes, France, in 1846. The company hired well-known artists to design its posters, packaging, and other promotional materials. The buttery biscuit itself (pictured at upper right) was introduced in 1886. The great Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha had first introduced the initials “L.U.” by which the company remains known in a poster of 1896 and then in a calendar of 1897. In this poster from the same year, published by the major Parisian printer Affiches-Camis, Bouisset created the figure of the traditionally dressed “Petit Écolier” (Little Schoolboy) who also became part of the company’s visual identity. Bouisset, in fact, established his reputation with his images of children, not least the one of a similarly charming child in his 1893 poster for Chocolate Menier.On View
Not on view
