May 10, 2012 - Sale 2278

Sale 2278 - Lot 34

Unsold
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
P. BOSSE (DATES UNKNOWN) VISITEZ LE PAVILLON DES TABACS / EXPOSITION COLONIALE. 1931.
57x78 inches, 145x198 cm. A.M.I., Paris.
Condition B+: restoration along vertical and horizontal folds; creases and abrasions in image.
One of the exhibitors at the 1931 Colonial Exhibition was the French state owned tobacco company (SEIT). Founded in 1926, they used the occasion of the exposition to launch a new brand, Cigarettes Congo. The package for the new brand was designed by Bossé and featured the profile of a Congolese woman with a typical tribal hairstyle. For this large and powerfully-colored poster, he uses more or less the same image, with the major addition being that the woman is now shown smoking. There is no biographical information about the artist. Seita p. 79.