Vintage Poster Archives
Cigares Neron 1930s | O.K. Gerard Advertising Poster
Cigares Neron 1930s | O.K. Gerard Advertising Poster
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A broad-faced man in a grey Roman centurion helmet throws his head back in laughter, a lit cigar raised in his right hand. Behind him, a flat cadmium-red silhouette shape fills the chrome yellow ground, and a loose white smoke curl rises to the right. The lower grey band carries 'CIGARES' above the monumental block capitals of 'NERON'. The palette, cadmium red, chrome yellow, grey and ivory, is handled with the confident economy that distinguished French commercial lithography at its Art Deco peak.
Designed by O.K. Gerard, active in France around 1930, the poster uses the Nero conceit with a light touch: the emperor is jovial rather than imperious, his centurion helmet a winking historical joke positioning the brand as grandly indulgent. Two printer cartouches in the lower corners read 'Misite Le Parfume de Westphalie, Vinnes N52'. This is tobacco advertising as graphic wit: a single image making the case that a good cigar is an imperial pleasure.
The flat graphic language, high-contrast palette and bold slab typography place this firmly within the French Art Deco commercial tradition of the early 1930s. The reference to Nero draws on a well-worn advertising device of the period, historical figures lent heritage weight to consumer brands, but Gerard's execution gives the figure warmth and movement that lifts it above the generic.
A natural fit for collectors of 1930s commercial art, for those drawn to Art Deco graphic design, and for anyone who appreciates the particular tradition of European tobacco advertising: a category that produced some of the most inventive poster work of the interwar decades.
