It is the best-known work of this painter and illustrator from Lorraine who worked for a long time for the Imageries Réunies de Jarville-Nancy, ceasing their activities in 1947 to become the Société des Papiers Peints de Nancy (54). It must be said that in terms of beer advertising, this poster by Alban Gaillard (1874-1949) sponsored by the Grandes Brasseries of Saint-Nicolas-de-Port (54) did not risk going unnoticed! We are in Lorraine region. Now Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, is not only the patron patron of children since he is supposed to have resuscitated three of them, gone to glean in the fields before being killed, cut up and put in the salting-tub by an ugly butcher … he is also that of Lorraine. Celebrated every December 6, Saint Nicolas has therefore given rise since the XIe century to great family celebrations in eastern France and the North, as well as in some other European countries. Suffice to say that on a poster of 119 x 79.5 cm intended to be stuck on all the walls of the region, the emblem is of size to mark the spirits … The gift of a collector allows to admire in particular a beautiful one. copy canvas at the Beer Museum of Stenay (55). If the existence of a local brewery in Saint-Nicolas-de-Port (54) dates back to 1786, several takeovers and expansions led to the installation of large breweries in 1931, and until they closed in 1986, in a superb modern building, witness of the industrial Art Deco architecture which has now become the Brasserie museum. We can therefore imagine that the poster produced by Alban Gaillard undoubtedly served as a support for a major advertising campaign launched around this extension. From a formal graphic point of view, we also notice that the picture book frames the scene with wall stones in which it reenacts the legend of Saint Nicholas. He also manages to slip in the classic symbols of brewing, barley and hop cones. Behind the big beer keg containing “the best of all”, clearly visible to the right of Saint Nicholas, the chimney of the brewery smokes. Not far from the surprisingly imposing Basilica of Saint-Nicolas-de-Port. It is because this basilica was built to shelter a small bone… which would be nothing less than a phalanx of the right hand of the famous bishop of Myra, stolen in Italy by a knight of Lorraine! In other words, a relic. In the shape of a small piece of the fingers which, according to legend, would have served to resuscitate the three little children … Except that here, it is not his only fingers that Saint Nicholas raises above the little heads springing from the wooden tub, but a generous mug of beer. Whose foam finally seems just as invigorating!
Valérie SUSSET
www.museedelabiere.com and www.passionbrasserie.com
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