the mystery of the french poster artist j. stall
J. Stall (1874-1933) was a French poster artist. Allegedly, J. Stall’s real name was Clement Andre Joseph Lapuszewski, but I haven’t been able to confirm this, and I don’t quite trust this claim. However, it appears that the same artist, whoever he was, sometimes also used the moniker ‘J. Spring’ and (I think) on at least one occasion ‘Tregin’.
Whatever J. Stall’s real name was, he was one of France’s most successful poster designers, working mostly for Vercasson, a Parisian printing house and advertising agency specialising on the creation and distribution of modern posters. I wasn’t able to find out any more about his life, except that he was a student of Leonetto Cappiello, but that seems odd too because if he was really born in 1874, as the sources claim, it is highly doubtful that he was taught by Cappiello since Cappiello was actually born in 1875, so Cappiello would have been a year younger than J. Stall. However, since J. Stall’s posters, many of which were also disseminated as postcards, all seem to have been created in the 1920s and early 30s when he would have been in his late 40s and 50s, it seems more likely that he was actually born later than commonly thought. So perhaps not even the the commonly assumed date of his birth (and that of his death?) can be trusted. Whatever the truth, his work is truly delightful and very much worth collecting.
