This listing is for a rare 1958 Pan Am Travel Poster. It is promoting air travel to 'Scandinavia By Clipper', and was designed by the famous French graphic designed Jean Carlu. The poster measures 42" inches tall and 28" inches wide. It is in good overall condition with moderate edge wear and several tears along the top edge. There is some foxing along the left edge and in the lower left corner. There is also a tear in the lower right corner. Please see the photos below for close-up details, and let us know if you have any questions. We have a low opening bid price, so don't miss your chance to win!
Jean Carlu (Bonnieres-sur-Seine, France, 1900 - 1989) was a French graphic designer, specialised in posters. He was member of a family of architects; his brother Jacques Carlu for example designed the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. He made posters during World War II to promote an increase in American production.
Jean Carlu started his career as a professional poster-designer in 1919, after a competition by a producer of dental aids (Glycodont) in 1918. From 1919 until 1921 he served as an illustrator, after which he worked at an agency that designed advertisements. In that period he designed his first poster in art deco style (for The Kid by Charlie Chaplin). He was attracted by cubism and by the works of Juan Gris and Albert Gleizes. He was one of the first who realised that to fix a trademark in the minds of consumers a process needs to be gone through in which schematic forms and expressive colours are applied. These are the characteristics that give his posters and other works their distinguishable quality.
The fame of Carlu rests mainly on two posters: for Monsavon and for the Theatre Pigalle. He also designed a pioneering label for the 1924 vintage of Ch??teau Mouton-Rothschild.