CHARLES LOUPOT (1892-1962) STOP-FIRE. 1925. PICKED UP BY OWNER'S SON 9/4/07 77 3/8x50 1/4 inches. Les Belles Affiche, Paris. Condition A: minor repaired tears at edges. After studying in Lyon, Loupot went off to fight in the First World War, and was wounded. He returned from the front and settled in Lausanne, where his parents were living, and quickly began his successful career as a poster designer. Most of his work in these early years was for the fashion and luxury goods industries. His style is a combination of the high-profile Swiss School to which he has added his own light French touch, a combination that worked very well for the products he was asked to advertise. Loupot moved to Paris in 1923 and continued working in the same spirit. Here, in his first of two posters for Stop Fire, we see the artist at a transition point. Although he is no longer working with fashion or luxury goods, he still uses a beautiful, and beautifully dressed, woman to help sell this brand of fire extinguishers for automobiles. In a highly-stylized manner he uses orange, green, brown and gray in vibrating lithographic tones to illustrate how the company's little extinguisher can be as effective as the metaphorical candle snuffer the attractive woman is placing over the car. The image combines grace and elegance of design with the strength and power of the message. In 1930 Loupot designed a second image for the company which depicted a close up of a large, stylized green hand gripping the candle snuffer. Zagrodski p. 60, Loupot 29.
