Wine in France in the 1930s (Vineyards)

Drink Wine and Be Happy Imagine an nation-wide advertising campaign saying Drink wine and live happily or to be short, drink wine and be happy, this sounds like a sci-fi movie set on another planet, or like some sort of provocative Planet-of-the-Apes story dealing with the drinking culture of an alien civilization. But this was France in the 1930s', a country still breathing self-confidence and common sense regarding its relation to wine. Believe it or not, this poster, which was printed by Devambez, was commissioned by the Ministère de l'Agriculture in 1933 for its national campaign to promote French wines, definitely another era.
The poster was designed by Italian-born Leonetto Cappiello (1875-1942), a self-trained artist who lived in Paris and obviously shared this love of wine (he also contributed with outstanding poster-ads for French spirits).

Incidently, I happen to have stumbled upon a very interesting twin-volume book from the early thirties last summer. This was in one of these village attic-sales (vide grenier) where people sell all kind of stuff on the sidewalks. This heavy two-volume book was waiting for me to leaf it through. It is titled La France Travaille (France at Work) and it has excellent pictures of workers in all the manual professions of that time in France, from artisans and farmers to fishermen and heavy-industry workers. Of course there was some content related to winemaking and of course I ended up buying the two volumes. The 1930s' was an era where the worker was at the center of many studies, including photographical, and you find this trend with an aestheticism underlining the work values and national pride in many other countries, like in Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States (where Lewis W. Hine's Men at Work, published in 1932, is a landmark of social photography).

Each of these two books features more than 400 pages of pictures (probably made with large-format wooden field cameras), and this looks like a mine of visual information with also extensive writing explaining the different trades. The writer for the vignerons chapter is Maurice Constantin-Weyer who I learned elsewhere was a 1928 laureate of the Prix Goncourt and who wrote L'Ame du Vin (The Soul of Wine) in 1932.
As the growers and winery clerks had their place in this book along with other type of workers, this photo story will give you a glimpse of how all these people worked circa 1930. The twin-volume book was published in 1932 but we can imagine that the pictures were probably shot between 1928 and 1932 by now-anonymous excellent photographers scouring the regions.
This first story will be centered on the vineyards. You will have a larger version of each picture by clicking on them.
Kudos to the anonymous (unnamed in the book) photographers who shot all these great pictures. Winter pruning in the vineyard (unidentified French region - ca 1930)
Plowing on Chateau Yquem (ca 1930) Click to enlarge Plowing (déchaussement) in Sauternes (ca 1930) Horse-drawn sulfur spraying on Chateau Haut-Brion (ca 1930) Backpack sulfur sprayer on Chateau Haut-Brion (ca 1930) Harvest in Champagne Flat baskets and large comportes (Champagne, ca 1930) Young woman-picker in Champagne (ca 1930) Old Champagne picker (cossier champenois) Man carrying a bénaton (Burgundy - ca 1930) Cote de Nuits & de Beaune : the large oblong baskets used at harvest Burgundy : lunchtime at harvest (ca 1930) Harvest in the Medoc (ca 1930) Bénatons lined at the door of a Champagne winery (ca 1930) Small growers delivering Bénatons (baskets) at a coopérative (unknown region - ca 1930) Burgundy : Big balonges (gondolas) bring the grapes to the winery (ca 1930) Old vigneron in Burgundy (ca 1930)

Comments

[Blog]

Thanks so much for posting these wonderful 80 year old photos. Such a shame that the photographers weren't named in the book. And, love the poster - definitely another age.
Wink Lorch

[rafa bernabe]

que belleza, salud

[Office]

Yes, thank you for this post!
Great!

best, Gottfried

[Ray Walker]

Beautiful!!! Love these old photos!