Artist: Adolphe Mouron Cassandre

Hailed as one of Cassandre’s masterpieces, this large format poster exemplifies the master’s artistry in the world of poster design. With cubist influences, a man in a bowler hat sits at a table with his Dubonnet, enjoying the drink while basking in a cheerful yellow glow. The shading, clean lines and bold typeface are all elements employed by the designer, giving his work a distinctive style.

Cassandre was one of the great poster designers of the 20th century.  Born Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron in Ukraine in 1901, Cassandre was trained as a painter in Paris and designed posters under his pseudonym, before achieving success with “Au Bûcheron” in 1923.

By the late 1920s his striking geometricized poster designs for railway and ocean liner companies became widely known on both sides of the Atlantic. He used stencils and an airbrush to create his stylized images of French railways such as “Étoile du Nord” and “Nord Express”. His 1935 SS Normandie poster became his most famous work. Cassandre's posters celebrate the new modes of luxury transport that characterize the prosperous lifestyle of his day.

Cassandre also recognized typography as an important part of poster design, creating new typefaces for his design needs. His posters are memorable for their innovative graphic solutions and their frequent denotations to such painters as Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso. He believed that ‘Designing a poster means solving a technical and commercial problem....in a language that can be understood by the common man.’