Original ‘Absinthe’ Canvas Poster by Leonetto Cappiello, Circa 1906

Leonetto Cappiello was born in 1875 in Livorno, Italy, but took on the nationality of French in 1930. He first achieved fame as a caricaturist, then by inventing the modern poster and creating the first brand logos, including the green devil for Maurin Quina. A self-taught artist, he created his first paintings in 1886. In November of 1900, he signed his first contract with the publisher P. Vercasson, for whom he produced posters from 1902 to 1913. After World War I he joined the publisher Devambez, for whom he worked until 1936. In 1922, his poster sketches were exhibited at the Venice Biennial and the French Institut in New York. In 1928 his “Self Portrait” was ordered by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. In 1936 he participated in the Milan Triennial and the Exhibition of the French Poster in Prague. After his death in 1942, Cappiello’s work was the subject of retrospectives at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1947, the House of Culture in Livorno, Italy, in 1960 and the Grand Palais in Paris in 1981.