Bougie Oléo / Huile Auto D. ca. 1910.

Artist: RAOUL VION
Size: 47 1/8 x 62 5/8 in./119.7 x 159 cm
Condition: B/ Slight tears at folds.
Printer: Publicité Wall, Paris
Reference: Ref: Negripub, 202; PAI-LXXIV, 483
Key Words: Art Nouveau; Black Images; Automobiles

Bougie Oléo / Huile Auto D. ca. 1910.
"The assertion of the stereotype seems to be the prerogative of the Oléo brand. Vion refines the grotesque—carnivorous mouth, phosphorescent eyes, triangular head—to play on the humorous register of the head as "black light." He enhances the visual impact of the treatment with solid colors and enlarges the motif at the expense of the product [a spark plug]. At the beginning of the century, a brand like Oléo could successfully illustrate its name, built in the form of a pejorative onomatopoeia, by the ugly face of the black man to whom mocking expressions were attributed in the satirical newspapers" (Negripub, p. 144).