Pair Of Jean-adrien Mercier Fish And Shellfish Lithographs

Pair of old lithographs after Jean-Adrien Mercier, scenes of fish and colored shells signed in the plate. Dimensions at sight 36.5x29.5 cm. Under double passe-partout, under glass, in gilt wood baguette frames. Total dimensions, with frame, 49.5x42.5 cm. Jean Adrien Mercier, born August 12, 1899 in Angers, died May 15, 1995 in Sainte-Gemmes-sur-Loire, was a French painter, poster designer and illustrator. He is the son of Maurice Mercier and Geneviève Catherine Cointreau. He studied at the Regional School of Fine Arts in Angers under the direction of Charles Berjole, then at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris. Mercier began his career as a poster designer for cinema and advertising, before becoming artistic director of the Cointreau house, his mother being a granddaughter of the founder of this company and daughter of the creator of the triple-sec Cointreau. On leaving the School of Decorative Arts in 1923, Jean-Adrien Mercier joined the Guild of Angevin Artists, created by the Angevin dialect poet André Bruel. He worked for the Bibliophile Angevin editions, also founded by André Bruel, illustrating Marc Leclerc's L'Entrar'ment du Père Taugourdeau with woodcuts. At the end of a competition, he produced the poster for the first fair and exhibition in Angers in 1924. From 1925 to 1939, he produced more than one hundred and ten cinema posters, working for the greatest directors of of the time: Jean Renoir, Abel Gance, Sacha Guitry... At the same time, he designed numerous advertising posters, notably for Cointreau, a brand with which he collaborated from 1925 to 1965. At the end of the 1930s, he began illustrating children's stories. In 1940, he was the author of a poster for the General Commissariat for General Sports Education of the Vichy regime, The Olympic Salute5. In 1942, he illustrated stories for his daughter Sylvie which appeared at Éditions Marcus in Nantes. In 1961, the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique commissioned him to decorate the children's playroom on the liner France, then to illustrate the menus for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique that would be distributed throughout the world. In the 1950s he illustrated a series of water diaries for the Syndicate Chamber of Cast Iron Pipe Manufacturers, decorated with thematic illustrations around water (Versailles, water towers, cast iron in the service of man, etc.). Three years after his death, the State acquired 94 lithographic posters and a dozen watercolors. In January 2008 the city of Angers received a donation of 60 works by the artist from his daughter Sylvie Mercier, also a painter, intended for the municipal archives.