Leonetto Cappiello - 1875-1942
Leonetto Cappiello was born in Livorno, Italy in 1875. As a child, his schoolbooks were filled with drawings and he created his first paintings by the age of 11. At 17, he held his first exposition in Florence and, several years later, had his first album of caricatures titled "Lanterna Magica". In 1898, Cappiello joined his brother in Paris where he became a part o
...see more »f its growing art community, which at that time included composer Puccini, actress Sarah Bernhardt, Yvette Guilbert, and painter Toulouse-Lautrec, among others.
The artist Cappiello began doing caricatures regularly of all the famous artists and leading citizens for several well-known French magazines and newspapers, including Le Rive, La Rampe, Le Sourire, and Le Figaro, to name a few. In the early 1900s, Cappiello had begun his career in poster art and signed a contract with a leading printer-publisher, P. Vercasson. By 1904 he was focused entirely on his poster art and abandoned the caricatures that he had been doing for the newspapers.
Cappiello had a unique and revolutionary style that brought him much acclaim for his continually evolving whimsical designs. He was responsible for over 3000 posters during his long career. His work was in both France and Italy primarily, with many posters of wine, cigarettes or food, along with decorative wall paintings in restaurants, bars and other buildings in France. By 1922, he had evolved into graphic design starting with the famous "Parapluies Revel" and ending with some of his most famous like "Mossant" and "Paris Exposition". His designs are timeless and are still beautiful today.
During World War I, he was called back to Italy, where he served as an interpreter in the country of his birth. Later, in 1930, he became a naturalized French citizen. He was a member of France's Salon des Humoristes and was promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honor. Cappiello retired in 1941 when he became ill in Grasse, and died in 1942 after dining with a friend. His work continues to have global appeal and is collected by public groups, museums and private citizens internationally.« see less
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