The Campari Posters

In 1860, in a small village in northern Italy, Gaspare Campari (1828-1882) developed a recipe for a bright red bitter aperitif made from the infusion of bitter herbs, aromatic plants and fruit, which he named after himself. He then moved to Milan and in 1867 opened the "Caffe Campari" in the centre of the famous Vittorio Emmanuel Gallery.

On 7 January 1889, the first advertisement for Campari was published in "Il Corriere della Sera" and the following year G. Mora produced the first poster for the brand. The poster shows a scene of a city in motion during the Belle Epoque.

Gaspare Campari's son, Davide (1867-1936), pursued a more dynamic approach: he built the first Campari factory in 1892 in Milan and invented the aperitif in individual bottles. In order to spread the brand throughout Europe, he called on the greatest poster artists of the time.

Many of these posters are unfortunately no longer available. In order to enrich this history, we have used photos from our own archives, as well as documents from two Italian museums. Special thanks go to Maurizio Scuderio, curator of the "Archivio Depero", for his valuable information on Fortunato Depero and for making documents available, and to the "Collezione Salce" of the "Museo Nazionale di Treviso".

The Gallery 1 2 3 acquired its first Campari posters in 1984 from the collection of Ettore Sobrero of Milan, a friend and disciple of the great collector Fernando Salce: the "Bitter Campari" poster (1921) by Cappiello with the "jester" surrounded by an orange peel, the red "Cordial Liquor Campari" poster (1926) by Nizzoli and the sublime "Cordial Campari" poster (1913) by Dudovich.

Campari posters by Cappiello >

Campari posters by Nizzoli >

Fortunato Depero and Campari >

Campari Swiss poster >

Cappiello's first poster for Campari (ca 1910).

(Collezione Salce, Museo Nazionale, Treviso.)

Giuseppe Magagnoli founded his company "MAGA" in Bologna in 1920, which quickly became the largest pre-war Italian advertising agency. He worked closely with great artists such as Mario and Severo Pozzati (Sepo), Achille Mauzan and Marcello Nizzoli.

The famous "jester" designed in 1921 by Leonetto Cappiello for Bitter Campari was printed in different sizes in the 1920s. Initially designed for the rival brand Picon, which did not wish to use it, this design was then offered to Campari.

Imagine this 2-metre high large format on a street corner... It would not go unnoticed!

Cappiello at the top of his art!

A masterpiece superbly printed in stone lithography by Devambez Paris-Torino, on 2 sheets, in 140x200 cm.

Lithographs 70x100 cm

< Edition signed "Cappiello"
with dark green title.

Edition signed
"Cappiello 921"
with light green title. >

< Magnificent 70x100 cm print on luxury paper, varnished at the time and in vibrant colours.

small size 50x70 cm >

In this poster from the 1920s, Cappiello uses the Swiss dog proudly carrying the barrel, an accessory that is inseparable from the Saint Bernard's rescue of people lost in the mountains. The barrel is no longer filled with eau de vie but with Cordial Campari, a raspberry-based liqueur! A fine example of the artist's "illustrative creativity".

< 50x70 cm edition

This poster was also printed in 70x100 cm and 200x280cm.

In 1925, Cappiello produced this poster for Campari's Red and White Bitter. Two identical figures, one dressed in red like the "jester" in the 1921 poster, the other entirely in white, each present a bottle of Campari, one red and the other white, both pointing to the Campari brand.

200x275 cm >

Poster composed of text only, which often accompanied the small formats of the dog and the "jester".

< Drawing on the formal achievements of Futurism, Nizzoli transgresses the rules of perspective and creates a dynamic between the immobility of the bottle and the jet of sparkling water that gushes from the siphon.

A plunging perspective invites us to taste a Cordial Campari in a welcoming and elegant atmosphere. >

Two more formats also exist:

< 70x100 cm

100x140 cm >

For Campari, he created numerous models, catalogues, advertisements, a bottle, sculptures and exhibition stands.

Advertising artworks.
(Collection Archivio Depero)

Campari, circa 1928.

50x86 cm

(Collezione Salce, Museo Nazionale, Treviso.)

Artwork, gouache, 1927 >
(Collezione Archivio Depero)

According to the testimony of Mr Passerini, former curator of the Campari collection:
"This project was printed in 1928, as a poster and in small format for trams, distributed only in the Milan and Turin area."
(Testimony collected in the eighties by Maurizio Scuderio, curator of the Archivio Depero).

To date, we have not found any images of these various prints from 1928. We do not know if this poster was ever printed in these bright colours.

According to the Mr. Passerini testimony, in the 1960s, the company published a tribute to this great Futurist, printed by "Officine Grafiche Leopoldo Baroni, Milano" in 70x100 cm size.

Thus his famous work exhibited at the 15th Venice Art Biennale in 1926 "Squiso al selz" ("Exquisite with seltzer water"), dedicated to the "Commendatore Campari", which is constructed like a large advertising poster, is in fact an oil painting!

Its description "Advertising painting, not poster" makes this vision of Art clear.

(Photograph provided by the Archivio Depero.)

PaINTED ADVERTISEMENT

The often-quoted "gigantic Campari poster" seen in this 1926 photograph is not, in fact, a poster. It is clearly a mural advertisement painted directly on a Parisian wall.

(Photograph provided by Archivio Depero.)

In 1932, Fortunato Depero designed the beautiful triangle-shaped bottle that would become the Campari Soda bottle. In designing this bottle, he was inspired by the shape of an upside-down bitter glass.

< 70x100 cm

90x128 cm >

< 100x140 cm

140x200 cm >

< 90x128 cm

70x100 cm >

"After the earth... the stars."

A poster for the Campari aperitif printed on 2 sheets, shortly after the launch of the first Sputnik.

Campari produced many posters printed in the "Swiss format", 90x128 cm, also known as "world format". They were intended for the Swiss market, but were also distributed in Italy.

This poster is available in the three Swiss national languages.

"A Campari soda... and the sun shines"

The feminine glamour by Bernard Villemot.

As Campari is an Italian brand, a nod to football was in order in this poster by the pop artist Ugo Nespolo.

The American Milton Glaser, a protagonist of the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, also contributed to the love affair between Campari and modern artists with these two "table settings" in Pop Art colours.

"Red Passion": the brand's modern slogan.

Red like this beautiful ashtray with its 1960s design.

Red is also the dominant colour of the famous Campari calendars produced in the 2000s with photographs by, among others, Mario Testino (2006), Marino Parisotto (2007) and Jean-Paul Goude (2009).