Cultivez des oléagineux

A rare wartime lithograph urging French farmers to grow oilseed crops during the Occupation, when German requisitions had pushed the country to the edge of famine. Mercier's composition is deliberately warm rather than coercive — flowering plants, ripe seed pods, and a wooden spoon brimming with oil read more like a kitchen still life than propaganda.

Jean-Adrien Mercier (Angers, 1899–1995) was one of France's leading poster artists of the interwar period, producing over 110 cinema posters for Jean Renoir, Abel Gance, and Sacha Guitry, as well as campaigns for LU, Cointreau, Gervais, and Menier. In 1961 the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique commissioned him to decorate the children's playroom of the SS France.

This piece is sold unframed, carefully rolled and shipped in a rigid tube to ensure it arrives in pristine condition.