Vintage Poster Archives
Bock-Orbec 1894 | PAL Art Nouveau Beer Poster
Bock-Orbec 1894 | PAL Art Nouveau Beer Poster
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A blonde figure erupts from the neck of a foaming amber bottle, arms raised, hair flung back, as a silver cork rockets diagonally out of the frame. Below, the bottle's oval label identifies the product: Orbec Mousseux Ricolet, produced by the Societe Generale des Boissons Gazeuses of Paris and Marseille. Bold red slab-serif type arches across the top: BOCK-ORBEC. White brush-script to the right declares Boisson Cazeuse a la Mode, and the footer carries a warning against imitations: Se Mefier des Imitations. The composition is warm amber and orange in its lower two-thirds, cooling to a pale sage-green sky above.
Designed by Jean de Paleologu, the Romanian-born poster artist who signed his work PAL, and dated by auction records to 1894. Paleologu was active in Paris through the 1890s, working across theatre, cycling, and consumer-goods advertising in the Belle Epoque affiche tradition. He left Paris for the United States in 1900. The Bock-Orbec design is among the most reproduced of his French period, combining the organic female figuration central to Art Nouveau with the explosive visual energy of the best Paris commercial lithography of that decade.
This archival print is reproduced on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper, restored from an archival source scan. The original lithograph measured 160 x 114 cm; the composition scales cleanly across standard print sizes. A natural choice for a dining room, bar, or kitchen where Belle Epoque French advertising illustration anchors the room.
