Achilles Lucien Mauzan

Achille Lucien Mauzan (Gap, Hautes-Alpes, 1883 – Gap, 1952) was born on the French Riviera, but moved to Italy in 1905. Known as a decorative illustrator during the Art Deco movement, he also painted and sculpted. After a period of study in the École des Beaux-Arts at Lyon, France, Mauzan divided his life between Milan, Paris and Buenos Aires. Between the years 1920 and 1940, the period between the wars, he used forms and materials under the influence of the avant-garde Cubists. He was also an illustrator of posters and postcards. During his career as a poster printer and designer, Mauzan designed over 2,000 posters, using a style marked by humor and brilliant colors for advertisement and events and over 1,000 postcard images. He made several important posters for the Italian film industry in Turin, and then went to work at Ricordi music publishing from 1912 to 1917. Later, from 1919 to 1923 he worked in the Magical press (Giovanni Magagnoli). In 1924 in Milan he established with Morzenti his own publishing house, the Mauzan-Morzenti Agency. In 1926 he traveled to Argentina and set up the “Affiches Mauzan” (Mauzan Posters) publishing house where many of his greatest works were created and where he worked until 1932. Within those years, Gino Boccasile, one of his students in Milan, traveled to Argentina at his insistence and set up a studio. Mauzan is also noted for designing several war posters including an adaptation of the famous Lord Kitchener poster.