A.R. Valdespino y Hno. Vinos y coñac Jerez, produced by the French printing firm Imp. F. Champenois in 1913, turns a drinks advertisement into a compact comic performance. Against a restrained grey ground, a monkey in a brilliant red coat holds a bottle above a reclining pelican, whose long beak opens towards its unlikely companion. The absurd encounter is immediately legible from a distance: warm reds, ochres and deep browns concentrate attention on the two animals before the eye drops to the emphatic company name below.

The poster belongs to an era in which illustrated advertising increasingly gave branded goods a distinctive public identity. Rather than presenting bottles alone, its designers built a memorable character scene around the wines and coñac of Jerez. The southern Spanish city was already closely associated with sherry and an international trade in fortified wine, while the French firm Imp. F. Champenois was active in the richly decorative world of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century commercial printing. Here, sophisticated production serves a deliberately mischievous idea: humour becomes the means by which the advertiser fixes its name in the memory.

A closer look

The composition is asymmetrical but carefully balanced. The monkey occupies the right-hand side, its upright body and raised arm forming a vertical counterweight to the pelican’s low, spreading shape on the left. Their tilted heads and opposing gestures create an animated diagonal across the centre. Although the scene has little conventional depth, subtle highlights along the animals’ bodies give the figures enough volume to stand out from the plain background.

Colour performs much of the poster’s persuasive work. The monkey’s scarlet coat is the strongest accent, set against brown fur and the pelican’s paler plumage. Yellow and ochre notes in the beak, bottle and lettering connect the central vignette to the information below, while darker contours make the simplified silhouettes crisp and instantly readable. The relative quiet of the grey field is equally important: it leaves the humorous exchange uncluttered and gives the warm palette unusual force.

Closer inspection reveals how much expression is carried by small details. The monkey’s cocked head and caricatured features suggest concentration as it handles the bottle, while the exaggerated curvature of the pelican’s beak turns the bird itself into a visual joke about drinking and capacity. The branded bottle is not merely an accessory but the hinge of the entire composition, positioned precisely between the two animals. Beneath them, the bold wording—“A.R. Valdespino y Hno. Vinos y Coñac Jerez”—anchors the fantasy in its commercial purpose.

Context and significance

Animal characters had particular advantages in early advertising: they could communicate across language barriers, lend a brand an immediately recognisable personality and convert a straightforward sales message into a miniature narrative. This poster uses that strategy with unusual economy. The animals are not arranged as natural-history subjects but as performers, their expressive poses and human-like exchange making the company name easier to remember than a conventional display of merchandise might have been.

Its appeal lies in this meeting of decorative assurance and visual wit. Imp. F. Champenois gives the advertisement a strong hierarchy—figures first, lettering second, product at the centre—without allowing the design to feel rigid. More than a century later, the monkey, pelican and suspended bottle retain the brisk comic timing that made illustrated commercial posters such effective objects of public visual culture.

Choosing the right size and finish

Artwork can feel intimate at smaller sizes and dramatically more architectural at larger ones. Use the room preview, model image and size guide to see how the proportions and scale will work in your space.

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The model in the listing images is holding the 18x24in (45x60cm) version of this art print.

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Selected artworks can be produced at statement sizes up to 3 metres (10ft). Custom sizing and specialist framing are also available. If the exact option you need is not listed, contact our workshop.

This artwork is also available as a float framed canvas, sometimes known as a shadow gap framed canvas or canvas floater. The work is printed on artist's cotton canvas and then stretched over a handmade box frame. We then "float" the canvas inside a wooden frame, which is available in a range of colours (black, dark brown, oak, antique gold and white). This is a wonderful way to present an art print without glazing in front. See some examples of float framed canvas art and explore the differences between my different finishes.