RAYMOND SAVIGNAC (1907-2002) MONSAVON AU LAIT. 1949. 59 1/2x39 inches, 151x99 cm. Bedos, Paris. Condition A: minor creases and abrasions at edges and in image. In 1949, when Savignac was jobless and broke, he and his friend Bernard Villemot decided to launch an exhibit of their maquettes. At the show, Eugene Schueller, founder of L'Oreal (the parent company of Monsavon), became enthusiastic about one of Savignac's illustrations (which he had refused to use several years earlier). With the war over, people were no longer interested in the cold, geometric images of Art Deco, but rather preferred humorous, brightly colored images. It was precisely this formula that Savignac provided with his "visual gags." His best posters are immediately understandable and can work without any text at all. Here, to indicate that Monsavon is made with milk, he goes directly to the source, and shows the soap coming out of a cow's udders! Weill 515, Savignac 314.
