Description

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Promotional poster for Alsace. This poster was issued in 1946 by the French railways (SNCF). The poster shows a rustic village among the vineyards. The designer of the poster is Eduardo Garcia Benito. Eduardo García Benito was an art deco painter and illustrator and the greatest Spanish exponent of this style. Born in 1881 in Valladolid and started his career as a painter at a young age, at the age of 12. At twenty he received a scholarship from the city of Valladolid to continue his studies in Paris. In Paris he quickly became known in the circles of artistic modernity and befriends artists such as Pablo Gargallo, Picasso, José Clara, Juan Gris, Modigliani and Gauguin. In 1917 he received his first exhibition in the Fauburg Saint-Honoré gallery. After this he regularly exhibited in the official halls of Paris: the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts and the Salon d’Automne. He confirms his reputation as an exceptional portrait painter with his portrait made for Alfonso XIII, which appears at the Antwerp International Exhibition in 1920. From that moment on Eduardo García Benito made portraits, illustrations and decorations for many characters. He works as illustrator work for magazines and newspapers such as Gazette du Bon Ton, Le Gout du Jour, La Guirlande and Les Feuillets, but he is best known as an illustrator for Vogue and Vanity Fair, where his many memorable covers and contributions to the aesthetics of Art Deco and creating the image of this style. He lived alternately in Paris and New York and made portraits of high society such as the actress Gloria Swanson. His contract with Vogue continued during the interbellum period, but was on the back burner during the war years. In 1945 when the war was over, Benito Garcia started to make illustrations again about the latest fashion from Paris and continued to contribute to Vogue until the end of the 40s. Then Garcia Benito started to focus on painting as, a muralist and portraitist. In 1962 he returned definitively to Spain and settled in Valladolid. He died in his home town on December 1, 1981