Jean-Raoul Chaurand-Naurac’s 1930 poster Stockez de la santé dans les 150 stations de sports de neige des Alpes et du Jura turns a skiing holiday into an exhilarating prescription. A skier springs across the foreground with arms and poles flung wide, his dark silhouette suspended against layered snowfields and jagged peaks. Bright orange skis cut through the cooler blues, greys and mountain greens, supplying a sharp visual accent and intensifying the impression of speed.

The spirited headline, “Stockez de la Santé” — “Stock up on health” — belongs distinctly to the interwar enthusiasm for fresh air, physical vigour and modern outdoor leisure. By 1930, skiing was being promoted to an expanding travelling public not merely as a sport, but as a restorative escape from urban life. Chaurand-Naurac’s design advertises no single resort: instead, its lower inscription gathers together “150 stations de sports de neige” across the Alps and Jura, presenting France’s winter landscape as a vast field of possibility.

A closer look

The skier dominates the vertical composition, positioned slightly to the right rather than fixed symmetrically in the centre. This asymmetry gives the figure somewhere to travel, while the outstretched ski poles extend the action across almost the full width of the design. Subtle tonal changes within the clothing lend volume to the body without weakening its bold graphic outline. Most strikingly, the orange skis form an emphatic diagonal beneath the figure, their warmth heightened by the surrounding cool palette.

Behind this airborne silhouette, the landscape is constructed in successive overlapping layers. Dark green trees cluster towards the lower left, establishing the wooded base of the mountains. Beyond them, ridges pass from deep green into softened grey and blue, with brighter snow caps catching the light near the upper centre. The recession is economical but effective: crisp foreground contrasts gradually yield to muted, atmospheric colour as the terrain moves into the distance.

Typography forms part of the composition rather than functioning as a detached caption. “Stockez de la Santé” occupies the upper portion in large, immediately legible lettering, while the longer message about the Alpine and Jura resorts anchors the lower edge. The alternation of emphatic and more formal letterforms creates a clear hierarchy: first the memorable promise of health, then the practical breadth of the destination. Flat areas of colour, simplified contours and the dramatic scale of the athlete give the poster its Art Deco character, combining elegance with direct promotional force.

Context and significance

French travel advertising of this period frequently presented transport and tourism through images of energy, clarity and escape. Here, Chaurand-Naurac avoids detailed topography in favour of an ideal winter realm assembled from peaks, forests and immaculate slopes. That simplification allows the poster to speak simultaneously for the high Alps and the Jura: geographically distinct regions united by the shared culture of snow sports.

The language of health is as revealing as the athletic spectacle. Rather than asking travellers simply to visit the mountains, the slogan treats vitality as something that can be accumulated and carried home. Its playful phrasing, together with the skier’s improbable lightness, gives the design an infectious optimism. The result is both a persuasive document of interwar tourism and a crisply staged celebration of skiing as modern movement.

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The model in the listing images is holding the 36x24in (90x60cm) version of this art print.

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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.