Basic HTML Version
SEPO (SEVERO POZZATI, 1895-1983)
97 SARDINES & THON AMIEUX. 1929.
45
1
/
2
x61
1
/
4
inches, 105
1
/
2
x155
1
/
2
cm. Affiches Bolland, Paris.
Condition B+: minor restoration along vertical and horizontal folds; abrasions and minor restoration in
image.
Italian-born Sepo stayed in Italy for work after his studies, but spent most of his career in France,
where he became a prominent art director for the Dorland Advertising Agency, handling some of their
largest accounts. Amongst which was the venerable Amieux company, one of the leaders in the canned
sardine industry and also pioneers of advertising. From the end of the 19th century they had always
commissioned top-notch artists to create their posters (including Cassiers, Gustav-Henri Jossot,
Georges Fay and Eugene Ogé) and created a slogan in the form of a play on words: “Toujours à mieux
“ [always better]. Sepo evokes not only the food and the small fork on each can used to eat the food,
but he also evokes the ocean, showing the logo in motion, swimming, which directly intimates the
idea of the product’s freshness. Such was the exceptional design of this image, “with its gradated bands
of color” that Pablo Picasso asked Sepo for a copy for himself . Sepo p. 164, no. 82.
[4,000/6,000]