Durban Oil & Soap.

Artist: PAL (Jean de Paléologue, 1860-1942)
Size: 43 3/4 x 61 1/2 in./111.2 x 156.2 cm
Condition: B/ Slight tears at folds.
Printer: La Lithographie Nouvelle, Asnières
Reference: Ref: PAI-XXXVI, 486
Key Words: Art Nouveau; Black Images; Artist: Pal

Durban Oil & Soap.
It's an astonishing image to behold from our contemporary viewpoint—and perhaps even more beguiling is the proliferation of this imagery in early advertising. Many posterists depicted black people washing away their pigment in an advertising ploy to prove the power of cleaning products, and Pal is no exception to the rule with his poster for the Durban soap and oil line, complete with an inset of the company factory in Jacobs-Durban. Also note that the credit is given to Louis Charbonnier—a posterist of some merit himself—for executing this Pal design on lithographic stone. Rare!