Leonetto Cappiello is known as the Father of the Modern Poster. Combining Chéret’s joyful exuberance, Toulouse-Lautrec’s technique of simplified lines and flat colors, and his own background as a caricaturist, he had an original approach to using posters as eye-catching advertising tools. Cappiello’s engaging posters shock, surprise, and move today’s viewers as much as they did his contemporaries.
This is the largest, most authoritative collection of Cappiello’s work ever presented. Many of the 534 full-color poster illustrations have never been seen before. Detailed appraisals and annotations, as well as biographical information and insights into Cappiello’s graphic methods, accompany each poster. Also included are fifty additional color pictures that demonstrate the many other outlets of Cappiello’s talents—book and magazine illustrations, paintings, maquettes, and postcards. Particularly notable are his superb early caricatures. Today, more homes are decorated with Cappiello’s posters than any other single poster artist in the world. Cappiello will show you why his posters remain so celebrated.
