Firmin Bouisset

Who was Firmin Bouisset?

Etienne Maurice Firmin Bouisset was a French painter, poster artist and printmaker. He was born to a working-class family in the town of Moissac in the Tarn-et-Garonne département in southwestern France. As an artist, Firmin Bouisset specialized in painting children subjects and did a number of illustrated books such as La Petite Ménagère in 1890.

At a time when posters were a popular form of advertising, Bouisset created posters with enduring images for a number of different French food companies such as Maggi and Lefèvre-Utile For the latter company, he used their LU initials as an ad logo as part of an 1897 poster image for a line of butter biscuits featuring "The Little Schoolboy" of which a variation is still being used by the company today. However, Firmin Bouisset is probably most famous for his posters for the French chocolate manufacturer, Menier. Contracted by the company in 1892, Bouisset used his daughter Yvonne as a model to create what became an iconic image of a little girl using a piece of chocolate to write the company's name. The drawing was featured on a great many of the Menier company's advertisements and on its packaged products as well as on promotional items such as creamers, bowls, sugar dishes, plates, canister sets, ashtrays, thermometers, key chains, and even children's exercise books.