Flouvella 1910
Buy this print on Etsy →Perfume is a promise of feeling, and Leopoldo Metlicovitz's Flouvella of 1910 makes that promise visible in a haze of twilight romance. It is a poster that sells not a bottle but a mood you can almost breathe in.
Metlicovitz designed several campaigns for the Sauze Freres cosmetics firm, and this dreamy composition distils the essence of their Flouvella fragrance. A languorous figure reclines in a twilight field, rendered in soft, romantic tones that conjure the intoxicating sensuality the scent was meant to suggest. The artist's true subject is atmosphere itself, twilight dissolving into reverie, and by binding the product so completely to a mood he makes the fragrance inseparable from the emotion it inspires. It is advertising that works like a poem. The blurred horizon, the loosened pose and the violet light of dusk all dissolve the boundary between the woman and the field around her, so that scent, landscape and longing seem to melt into a single sensation.
Leopoldo Metlicovitz (1868-1944) was a pioneer of Italian Liberty, the Art Nouveau of Italy, and a celebrated designer of operatic and advertising posters for the great Milanese house of Ricordi. A gifted painter with a flair for theatrical staging, he helped shape the visual identity of an entire era of Italian design, and his work carries a warmth and lyricism all its own.
Art Nouveau swept across Europe at the turn of the twentieth century, casting aside rigid academic convention for sinuous 'whiplash' lines, botanical ornament and idealised figures. In Italy it flowered as Liberty, and it was this movement that first turned the advertising poster into genuine art and made the city street an open-air gallery.
Soft, sensual and atmospheric, this print brings a romantic hush to intimate spaces. It suits a bedroom, dressing room, boudoir or sitting room, glows above a bed or vanity, and lends a dreamy note to a gallery wall of Art Nouveau and Italian Liberty prints.
Printed to order on premium 189 gsm museum-grade archival matte paper with fade-resistant pigment inks for rich, gallery-quality colour and crisp detail. Choose your size from the drop-down menu - 8x12, 12x18, 16x24, 20x30 or 24x36 inches. Carefully packaged and shipped rolled in a sturdy tube, or flat in the smallest size; frame not included.
This is a faithful fine-art reproduction of the original stone lithograph, colour-matched and printed to archival standards rather than a flat mass-market copy. It preserves the texture and character of the antique poster while arriving crisp, clean and ready to frame.
A romantic gift for lovers of Italian Liberty, Art Nouveau and Belle Epoque design - and a lasting way to bring dreamy vintage portraiture into a home, studio or workplace. Reproduced from a high-resolution scan of the original lithograph; subtle age-toning is part of its authentic historic character.
