PRICELESS OIL FRAMED POSTER

This lithograph by French graphic designer Henri de Laurencin (1885-1954) tells French motorists (automobilistes) that if they use Priceless Oil, their motors will be toujoursjeunes - forever young (i.e. like new).  It was printed by the French printer Societe Nouvelle Affiches Gaillard in Paris for Mobil Oil’s campaign promoting its “Priceless Oil” to French motorists.

In the center of this poster, a figure in the stylized costume of a native American chieftan/warrior, with a headdress and a tomahawk, is standing on a globe and holding up a can of Priceless Oil as it pours down over the globe. When this poster was created in the late 1920s or early 1930s, the native Americans had been all but vanquished to reservations, and the concept of the noble savage remained only in imaginations.  Nonetheless it is this noble savage who steps forward in this poster and provides the world with the oil needed to power the new automobiles that were rapidly becoming the transportation mode of choice in the “civilized” world.  It’s a complicated image with many interesting interpretations.

This poster’s bold primary colors and large size (46” x 63”) combine with its curious graphics and message to make it a truly extraordinary lithograph bearing testament to that era when the US had transformed from a country with a wild frontier to a country producing oil for the automobiles that would further spur this transformation.  How interesting that all of this commentary comes from a poster designed for a French audience.

This poster is guaranteed to generate interesting conversations wherever it is placed.

Condition: A