Contratto

Designer Leonetto Cappiello Italy, 1875 - 1942

Date1922

Dimensions55 1/4 x 39 1/4 in. (140.3 x 99.7 cm)

ClassificationsPoster

Credit LineGift from the Collection of Don Lebowitz and Claudia Wagner

Terms

Object numberPH.9621

DescriptionThis is the smallest size of this composition, printed in three formats, designed by Leonetto Cappiello for Contratto’s sparkling wine, one of many advertisements he devised for alcoholic beverages of every kind. This Piedmont vineyard had been founded in 1867, and its high-quality sparkling wines had already been distributed to markets around the world for a decade or so by the time it produced its first vintage sparkling wine in 1919, just a few years before Cappiello was commissioned to create this design. The bold figure with eye-catching red details emerging from a dark ground as she raises a huge, overflowing glass of sparkling wine is characteristic of the designer’s playful, innovative style, focused on an engaging image. “Les Nouvelles Affiches Cappiello” mentioned in the lower margin here was opened in Turin, Italy, between 1921 and 1922 as a subsidiary of Devambez printers in Paris, to which Cappiello was contracted from 1921.

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