Lait Pur Sterilise de la Vingeanne
Lait Pur Sterilise de la Vingeanne

Artist: T. A. Steinlen Swiss (1859-1923)

Title: Lait Pur Sterilise de la Vingeanne

Plate: PL. 95

Description: Condition A+

Original lithograph from "Les Maitres de L'Affiches" series.
Printed by Imprimerie Chaix, Paris, 1897.

Reference: Bargiel et Zagrodzki, 16. A1; Crauzat, 491; Wine Spectator, 112; Maitres, 95; DFP-II, 783; Abdy, p. 97; Weill, 63; Gold, 56; Encylopédie/Weill, p. 54; Posters of Paris, 80; PAI-LXXXIII, 456

Presented in 16 x 20 in. acid free, archival museum mat, with framing labels. Ready to frame. Shipped boxed flat.
Certificate of Authenticity.

Maitre Sheet Size: approx 11 3/8 in x 15 3/4 in 29 cm x 40 cm

Price: $2400.00 Rare

Greg's suggested set with:

Medium size sold for $ 23,000 US
Poster Auctions International, N.Y. Nov. 2007


"One of the all-time most endearing poster images ever created"

"All the warmth, humanity, and affection for which Steinlen is so loved comes through gloriously in this poster for the newly marketed “lait stérilisé” that was touted over the “lait ordinaire” at that time. Charles Knowles Bolton, writing a year after its publication, proclaimed that this “is perhaps the most attractive poster ever made. No man with half a heart could fail to fall in love with the child.” Louis Rhead himself commented: “When I saw it in Paris last year... it seemed to me the best and brightest form of advertising that had appeared.” (Rennert)

"The humble dairy of Quillot Brothers in the village of Montigny sur Vingeanne could not have had the slightest notion that, to advertise their sterilized milk, they caused Steinlen to produce one of the all-time most endearing poster images ever created"(Rennert-XXX 50)

"Nowhere does Steinlen's humanity shine with a greater glow than in 'Lait pur Sterilise' a poster for a milk distributor. His daughter Colette is shown here, as she carefully tastes the milk she's giving the family cats, to make sure it isn't too hot for them. The cats show up in many of Steinlen's drawings and in several posters (see PL. 170). Apparently they were very important members of the household. This was his first poster for (the printer) Verneau, who later became his principle printer, and it remains, justly, his most successful one. Its simple domesticity, expressed in warm colours, has never been surpassed, with it, Steinlen assured himself of a place among the front rank of all-time great poster artists"(Wine Spectator 112)

Steinlen arrived in Paris from his native Switzerland in 1882; his first poster dates from 1885 and, in a long and extremely prolific career that saw him illustrate about 100 books and over 1,000 issues of periodicals, as well as create paintings, lithographs and bronzes, he produced about fifty posters. Abdy makes this point: “Steinlen was one of the four or five great poster artists of his time; all his lithographic work is distinguished by a freshness and vigour which makes it powerful, and a simplicity and sympathy which makes it appealing . . . The subject of his posters are those dearest to his heart, his pretty little daughter Colette, and his beloved cats” (p. 94). All the warmth, humanity and affection for which he is so loved comes through gloriously in this poster for the newly-marketed “lait stérilisé” that was touted over the “lait ordinaire” at that time. Charles Knowles Bolton, writing a year after its publication, proclaimed that this “is perhaps, the most attractive poster ever made. No man with half a heart could fail to fall in love with the child.” Louis Rhead himself commented: “When I saw it in Paris last year . . . it seemed to me the best and brightest form of advertising that had appeared.” That judgment remains valid today.
(Rennert-XL1 533A)