Moteur Cérès Circa 1900

This circa 1900 original advertising poster for Moteur Cérès is a radiant example of how the industrial age was imaginatively woven into the visual language of Art Nouveau. Designed by the celebrated Italian-French poster artist Giovanni Maria Tamagno, the composition elevates a humble piece of farming equipment into the realm of mythology and beauty.

At the center of the poster floats a divine, allegorical figure—Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture—who gracefully cradles a bouquet of wheat and poppies while scattering laurels, symbols of victory and abundance. Dressed in a flowing red garment that dances in the wind, she hovers above the machine being advertised: the Moteur Cérès, an agricultural engine produced by J. de Bucy, a constructor based in Bar-sur-Aube, France.

At her feet, a playful cherub operates the engine, imbuing the scene with both whimsy and symbolic harmony between nature and industry. In the background, a serene rural landscape shows farmers working amidst golden fields, subtly implying that this mechanized invention is now a natural extension of the traditional agricultural world.

Tamagno (1851–1933), known for his theatrical flair and richly detailed lithographs, was a prolific illustrator of commercial posters during the Belle Époque. His work often combined dramatic allegory with technical precision, lending grandeur and romanticism to everyday products. Whether advertising locomotives, liqueurs, or agricultural machines, Tamagno’s posters were celebrated for their ability to transform the utilitarian into the poetic.

In Moteur Cérès, Tamagno doesn’t simply promote a piece of machinery—he celebrates the union of divine fertility and industrial innovation, a vision of modern agriculture as both art and progress. The poster captures a moment of optimism, when technology promised not to replace nature, but to enhance it.

A masterwork of turn-of-the-century poster art, this lithograph is both an advertisement and a celebration of a new rural ideal—where fields flourish under the guidance of myth, muscle, and machine.

Agriculture - Industry - Advertising - France

Wheat - J de Bucy builder in Bar sur Aube

Printed by Parisian lithography in Paris

Good condition, light soiling, one hole