Borea
Artist
Leonetto Cappiello
Italy, 1875 - 1942
Date1923
MediumLithograph
Dimensions54 1/4 x 38 1/2 in. (137.8 x 97.8 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.4245
DescriptionCappiello designed this poster advertising Borea socks from Naples in 1923, some two years after he signed a contract with the great Parisian publishing firm of Devambez. In the spring of 1923, in fact, the Devembez studio held a major exhibition celebrating its collaboration with Cappiello and their respective roles in the development of the art of modern advertising; his association with the firm would continue until 1936. In this delightfully absurd image, Cappiello shows three men in overcoats and top hats, one with a monocle, examining the boxes of colorful socks on the table with an almost scholarly degree of attention; their dark forms are set off against a bright-orange ground. The composition is entirely characteristic of Cappiello’s unique and irreverent sensibility.On View
Not on view
