?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
FIRMIN BOUISSET (1859-1925)
PAPIER A CIGARETTES JOB. 1895.
56x35 1/2 inches, 142 1/4x90 1/4 cm. Affiches Camis, Paris. Condition B+: repaired tears, creases and overpainting in margins and along vertical and horizontal folds; skinning in upper left image.
Bouisset's poster of a young girl (his daughter Yvonne) writing on a wall to advertise Chocolat Menier launched him to instant fame within the poster world. Becoming a specialist in using children in his posters, it wasn't long before he called on his son Jacques to pose for various images. Young Jacques appears in many seminal poster images, including LU (Biscuits Lefèvre Utile), Poulain and this rather surprising image for rolling papers. While child labor was certainly a part of French society at the end of the 19th century, it wasn't often paraded in front of the public. So why enlist this young chimney sweep into advertising? For a possible answer we turn to the advertising genius of the parent company, Job, and its owner Jean Bardou. They had already employed the ultimate talents in the poster world to design their advertising (Jules Chéret, Alphonse Mucha, Pal and others) and Bardou realized that Bouisset's style had become a popular trend. He was obviously correct, as this charming poster was very successful.
