Vintage Poster Archives
Villemot Negrita Rhum 1974 | Vintage Advertising Poster
Villemot Negrita Rhum 1974 | Vintage Advertising Poster
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A dark silhouette of a seated woman rests beneath the arc of a sweeping palm tree, a large amber sun spreading behind her against a saturated red ground. Her blue-and-white striped head wrap, a single hoop earring and a string of red beads are the only details to emerge from the shadow. Bold white rounded sans-serif type spans the upper register: 'Negrita. Le rhum.' The composition works in four flat colour shapes. There is nothing superfluous.
Bernard Villemot (1911–1989) designed this poster for Bardinet in 1974. Trained under Paul Colin in Paris and working across four decades for Air France, Orangina, Perrier and Bally, Villemot built his reputation on warm palettes, Matisse-influenced flat forms and the ability to reduce a commercial brief to its visual minimum. The Negrita commission fits squarely in that body of work. The Bardinet rum brand, founded in Limoges in the mid-nineteenth century and long established in Bordeaux, was the leading French rhum marque of the period, and Villemot gave it a tropical graphic language of genuine confidence.
This archival print is reproduced from the 1974 original on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper, using pigment-based inks at giclée standard. The palette, the silhouette, the sun: all are reproduced at full fidelity. A considered choice for anyone drawn to mid-century French commercial graphic design or the visual culture of European spirits advertising.
