Request to view

This object can be requested via email from the Prints & Drawings Study Room

Image of Gallery in South Kensington

We don’t have an image of this object online yet.

More about images

V&A Images may have a photograph that we can’t show online, but it may be possible to supply one to you. Email us at vaimages@vam.ac.uk for guidance about fees and timescales, quoting the accession number: E.306-1921

Poster

1893 (produced)
Artist/Maker
Belfond & Co. (printer)
Willette, Adolphe Léon (artist)
Place of origin
Paris (produced)

This poster is highly reminiscent of Jean-Etienne Liotard's famous pastel of a young servant girl carrying a tray of hot chocolate, La Belle Chocolatière, (Dresden: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen). In Willette's composition however, the woman wears traditional Dutch folk dress, signalling the Netherlandish extraction of the Van Houten company, whose cocoa she advertises. The artist cleverly fuses symbols of tradition and 'exoticism' by placing the wholesome figure of the young woman against a yellow ground with trailing cacao tree branches. This enables him to suggest at once the origins of the product and its alleged health-giving properties.

Object details

Categories
Prints
Posters
Object type
Poster
Materials and techniques
Colour lithograph
Lithographic Ink
Paper
Planographic Printing
Colour Lithograph
Brief description
Colour lithograph 'Prenez du cacao Van Houten' by Adolphe Léon Willette, France 1893.
Physical description
A woman in Dutch folk dress proffers a tray bearing a cup of cocoa, against a yellow ground with trailing cacao tree branches. The words 'Prenez du cacao / Van Houten' appear on the bottom in black and red ink.
Marks and inscriptions
  • A. Willette (Signed right)
  • Lith. Belfond & Co. 10, Rue Gaillon-Paris (Left-hand side)
Gallery label
(1987-2006)
'American and European Art and Design 1800-1900'

Adolphe Léon Wilette was a prolific and popular painter, designer and illustrator, whose caricatures were widely published in humorous magazines, including the one he founded, La Vache Enragée. He produced stained glass and mural paintings for Rodolphe Salis at the artists' cabaret Le Chat Noir, as well as decorations for other Paris cafés and taverns. He produced about a dozen posters in all, but this cocoa poster for Cacao van Houten is not typical of his normal gentle, carefully-drawn style being much more solid and forceful.
Credit line
Given by Mrs J.T. Clarke
Subject depicted
Cocoa
Summary
This poster is highly reminiscent of Jean-Etienne Liotard's famous pastel of a young servant girl carrying a tray of hot chocolate, La Belle Chocolatière, (Dresden: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen). In Willette's composition however, the woman wears traditional Dutch folk dress, signalling the Netherlandish extraction of the Van Houten company, whose cocoa she advertises. The artist cleverly fuses symbols of tradition and 'exoticism' by placing the wholesome figure of the young woman against a yellow ground with trailing cacao tree branches. This enables him to suggest at once the origins of the product and its alleged health-giving properties.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.306-1921

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdApril 12, 2000
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O35223/poster-willette-adolphe-léon/
Download as: JSON