May 21, 2009 - Sale 2181

Sale 2181 - Lot 68

Price Realized: $ 24,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
A. M. CASSANDRE (ADOLPHE MOURON, 1901-1968) NORD EXPRESS. 1927.
41 1/4x29 1/2 inches, 105 1/2x75 cm. Hachard & Cie., Paris.
Condition A / A-: minor repaired tears, creases and wrinkles at edges.
Nord Express was Cassandre's second poster commissioned for the Chemin de fer du Nord railway in 1927. This stylized locomotive is a graphic glorification of the Machine Age and is rendered in architecturally precise geometric shapes and white lines. The design is made even more impressive by its perspective: seen from track level, the locomotive appears all the more massive and powerful, its great speed emphasized by the dramatic way that it disappears into the horizon, (a horizon ingeniously brought even closer by the telegraph wires, which also quickly disappear). An airbrush is cleverly used to create what Henri Mouron, Cassandre's son, refers to as an "authentic poetry of space." Repeating a design choice from the Étoile du Nord, Cassandre has again arranged the typography around the outside of the poster so as not to interfere with the image. One of the most enduring Art Deco icons. Mouron / Cassandre pl. 10, Weill / Cassandre pl. 13, Suntory 49, p. 73, Reina Sophia p. 159, Modern Poster 152, Word & Image p. 80, Weill 310.