Cinzano, 1920 > Leonetto Cappiello

1875-1942 Leonetto Cappiello was born in the Italian resort town of Livorno. He had a natural talent for drawing and his first ambition was to be a great painter. Cappiello started his career working as a caricaturist. After 1900 he devoted himself to painting and advertising poster design. Soon he became the most acclaimed european artist of the period. He was a great innovator of advertising poster techniques, often painting the figures on a monochrome background. He could create an impressive aesthetic effect through the combination of vividly coloured graphics. As a painter he decorated many halls of the Galéries Lafayette in Paris. In 1922 he took part in the Biennale of Venice and in 1939 was involved in the Exposition des Arts Decoratives in Paris.