1. Italian Artist Leonetto Cappiello rocked the world
of advertising at the turn of the 20th century.
poster boy
海报传奇
food & art
IN 1898 A YOUNG MAN LEFT HIS HOME in Livorno, Italy to visit his
older brother in Paris. Leonetto Cappiello was instantly seduced by
the City of Light, reveling in its love of culture, free discussion of
new ideas, and educated ambiance, the culmination of concepts
fostered since the “age of enlightenment.”
Deciding to remain in Paris, Cappiello would need a way to
support himself. He had begun studying art in Livorno, hoping
to become a painter someday. His quick
caricature sketches, taken up as a hobby,
had delighted his small audience there, and
when he was 21 he’d made some money by
publishing the best of these in booklet form.
Now, in Paris, his brother suggested that
various magazines in the city might pay a
good price for caricatures of celebrities.
Leonetto approached two famous
fellow Italians who were staying in town,
actor Ermete Novelli and composer Giacomo
Puccini, and asked if he could sketch them.
They agreed, and the caricatures were read-
ily sold to Le Rire (meaning “laughter”), a
popular French humor magazine of the time.
The sketches were so well-received that
Cappiello quickly became the darling of the
art form and the favorite caricaturist of the-
ater and cabaret stars in Paris.
He might have lived out his life as a
successful sketch artist, but in 1899 one of the editors to whom
he’d often shown his work asked him to create a poster for a new
humor magazine he was about to launch, Le Frou-Frou, or “frills.”
Cappiello quickly sketched a can-can girl kicking up her skirts.
Caricatures were usually done in pen and ink, but now he was
being called upon to use color. He came up with a minimalist idea,
subtle tints on a solid yellow background, with dabs of red on the
pantaloons peeking from beneath the dancer’s petticoats.
His provocative poster made a big splash throughout the city,
意大利有个名为 Leonetto Cappiello 的年轻小伙子，
于 1898 年离开家乡利佛诺，到巴黎拜访他的哥哥。
到了巴黎之后，他深受这座光之城所吸引，纵情于知
识份子圈的人文氛围与自由思想言论中，浸淫于自启
蒙时代以来不断发展的丰富思想内涵。
后来，Leonetto Cappiello 决定要长住巴黎，但
得先解决生计问题。他曾在利佛诺修过艺术课程，一
直梦想要当画家，他的嗜好便是
用铅笔快速勾勒出人物肖像漫
画，常常把周遭围观的群众逗得
乐不可支，在 21 岁那年，他便
挑出几幅最好的作品出版成书，
以赚取生活费。现在到了巴黎，
Leonetto Cappiello 的 哥 哥 建 议
他改画名人的人物肖像漫画，也
许有好几家杂誌愿意出高价买他
的作品。
于是 Leonetto Cappiello 去拜
访两位当时住在巴黎的意大利名
人，分别是演员 Ermete Novelli
与 作 曲 家 Giacomo Puccini， 他
询问两人是否愿意当他的肖像
模特儿，两人都答应了，后来
作品卖给当时着名的幽默书刊
Le Rire 杂誌（法文「笑声」之
意），获得热烈回响，Leonetto
Cappiello 旋即走红画坛，成为
最受欢迎的肖像漫画家，巴黎剧场与歌厅名伶都竞相
求画。
Leonetto Cappiello 刚开始以素描画家的身份一
夕成名，但到 1899 年，一位熟识的编辑要发行新
的幽默杂志「Le Frou-Frou」（法文「时髦」之意），
邀请他为杂志创作一幅海报，Leonetto Cappiello
快速勾勒出康康舞女郎高踢蓬蓬裙的图案，与以
往用沾水笔与墨水画成的肖像素描不同，这次编
辑希望他能创作彩色画报，于是他运用极简绘画
Cognac Monnet, 1927, usd6800, France
At the peak of the twenties’ roar, an uninhibited flapper cavorts barefoot in a filmy frock à la Vionnet
or Patou, pressing bee-stung lips to the rim of an outsize snifter of “sunshine in a glass.”
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2. 技法，将背景涂成澄黄色，舞者撩起蓬蓬裙，露
出底下大红色衬裤。
Leonetto Cappiello 充满煽动性的海报作品在巴
黎掀起一股浪潮，其他的广告商也纷纷前来洽谈生
意，他才发现自己独创一种大胆的艺术风格 ：用单纯
的背景与中央醒目的主角形成强烈对比。自此之后，
Leonetto Cappiello 开始承接各种海报委託，持续以
大胆或幽默的风格创作，在进入 20 世纪之际，他的
作品红遍半片天，在意大利处处皆可见。
有 别 于 当 时 一 般 绘 制 海 报 的 方 式，Leonetto
Cappiello 首创以单色背景衬托画面中央主角的画法，
发展出辨识度极高的独特风格。随着他的绘画技法越
臻成熟，作品中便不再出现漫画肖像，这也让海报画
面效果更具戏剧张力。
与 先 前 谢 勒（Chéret）、Toulouse-Lautrec、
Mucha 几位海报大师的作品相较，更可看出 Leonetto
Cappiello 作品的原创性，这些前辈的作品情感丰富，
带有类似油画的视觉效果，还有其他大师级画家如
Steinlen、Grasset、Bonnard 等等。自 1878 年海报之
父谢勒发明三色石版平面印刷术后，这些艺术家在海
报业更能一展长才，因为这种新型印刷术能让色彩运
用更灵活丰富，还能创造透明感。
石版平面印刷术发明前，广告海报业是运用金属
器具雕刻或是以木板印成版画，成品精细度较低且色
彩颇为受限，过于乏味，难以呈现动人的图像以达到
产品宣传的效果。
但石版平面印刷术发明后，在二十年内，巴黎、
米兰、柏林、美国各大城市的街道上四处皆可见到色
彩缤纷的广告画报，为沉闷的建筑与店家妆点门面，
带来欢乐缤纷的气氛，从脚踏车、巧克力、饼乾、帽子，
到伏特加、白兰地等烈酒，各种产品推出时都会搭配
五颜六色的广告海报。
迎接新世纪、新时代、新的艺术型态，Leonetto
Cappiello 的 独 创 风 格 躬 逢 其 盛， 一 炮 而 红， 吸 引
其他的年轻艺术家纷纷加以仿效，不久后 Leonetto
Cappiello 便被冠上「现代广告设计之父」的美名。
虽然海报创作中的世纪末华丽风格仍然持续延烧，
但是世人咸认 Leonetto Cappiello 的作品彻底改变海报
设计的艺术，且鲜明的风格更适合新时代的快速节奏。
Leonetto Cappiello享年 67岁，于 1942年逝世前，
每年持续创作上百幅作品，而他的原作仍在全球各地
交易买卖，吸引许多艺术迷与收藏家争相珍藏。
and when offers began coming in from other advertisers, Cappiello
realized he‘d hit on something original – an audacious statement of
an eye-catching figure on a plain flat background.
He began accepting requests for his posters, continuing to
develop a style that many found shocking or humorous. And so
it was that at the turn of the century the posters of Leonetto
Cappiello exploded on the Italian scene.
As the first poster artist to create startling figures standing
out against monochromatic backgrounds, quite unlike the typical
posters of the day, Cappiello forged a new style that was immedi-
ately identifiable. As his technique evolved, his caricature figures
disappeared and his posters became more powerful and dramatic.
They seemed even more novel and innovative coming on
the heels of the sentimental and “painterly” style used by his pre-
decessors – Chéret, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Mucha – and of such
great masters as Steinlen, Grasset, Bonnard, among many others.
These artists had cut their teeth in the poster business after 1878,
the year Chéret developed his ingenious three-stone lithographic
process that gave artists the freedom to use color and create
transparent effects.
Until then, posters advertising businesses and products were
simply crude metal engravings or woodblock prints, unsophisti-
cated designs devoid of color, more like dreary afterthoughts than
compelling images for the products they were meant to promote.
But within twenty years of the advent of the new litho-
graphic process the streets of Paris, Milan, Berlin, and the cities
of America came alive with a proliferation of colorful images that
brought gaiety and light to drab buildings and shops. These post-
ers advertised everything from bicycles to chocolate and biscuits,
from hats to vodka and Cognac.
On the cusp of a new century, a new era, and a new art form,
Cappiello’s work gained immediate popularity. Other young artists
began following his lead, and Cappiello soon became known as
“the father of modern advertising.”
Although poster art in the fin-de-siècle style continued to
flourish, it was widely agreed that Cappiello’s work had trans-
formed the art of poster design with a style far better suited to
the quickening tempo of a new century.
Leonetto Cappiello continued creating posters by the hun-
dreds until his death in 1942 at the age of 67, and originals of his
work are still bought, sold, and collected by fans and enthusiasts
across the globe.
food & art
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Relsky Vodka, 1910, usd3300, France
The revolution was still to come and the masses
of White Russian émigrés had not yet descended
on Paris when this gleeful Cossack with shocking
red beard hit the hoardings in 1910.
Veuve Amiot, 1922, usd3800, France
Veuve Amiot from the Loire Valley billed
itself as “the king of sparkling wines,” and
Cappiello aptly designed a whimsical royal
connoisseur to render his expert opinion.
Maurin Quina, 1906, usd2500, France
In Cappiello’s most famous image, a grinning
green demon uncorks a bottle of apéritif. His color
may be intended to suggest that of absinthe, the
notoriously naughty spirit of the bohemians that was
eventually banned by the French government.
Bitter Campari, 1921, usd8500, Italy
Against a velvety backdrop, an impish jester dressed in
Campari red frolics inside an orange peel spiral. Cappiello
and his client were keeping abreast of the rise of
cocktails in the twenties, concoctions like the Negroni:
Campari, gin, vermouth rosso, and a twist of orange.
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