LOUIS GUSTAVE SOUBIRAN
Biography
Born in 1857 in Bordeaux, Louis-Gustave Soubiran was an exceptional businessman for his time. His company which was at first based in Bordeaux, then in Villenave d’Ornon and Bergerac, exported various products from the southwest of France to the other side of the world, particularly to India, South America and to the United States, all the way to California.
Soubiran marketed his products by employing the best printers in Bordeaux and Paris to create multicolored lithographic labels for each one of his products. The result was an intricately detailed “reclame” (the original word for advertisement) that would embellish each can or bottle which would be then shipped across the ocean.
But in 1941, Le Grand Soubiran (as he was known) died and all commercial activities were halted by the Second World War. It was not until 74 years later that Michel Dubédat, a local historian from Léognan, started to collect labels from Soubiran’s products, which soon turned into a substantial collection.
Then in 2023, fascinated by his family history and by the collection created by Mr. Dubédat, Alexandre Soubiran, the great-grandson of the illustrious businessman, presented the opportunity to Galerie Sweeney to create for the first time a selection of quality posters based on the labels for the Soubiran products which had ceased to exist in 1941.
The project undertaken by the Galerie Sweeney with permission from the Soubiran family has two main objectives: to create a product printed in Bordeaux that illustrates the extent of the proliferation of local products over a hundred years ago, and to recreate the history of a visionary businessman who understood global marketing earlier than most others.
The Galerie Sweeney is proud to present a unique selection of quality posters printed on 240-gram cotton paper by the LEBOLABO Printing Presses in Bordeaux. The colors used come with a 80-year guarantee, and each poster is stamped with the original seal of the Soubiran Company as proof of authenticity.