ADOLPHE MOURON CASSANDRE (1901-1968) GRAND SPORT. 1931. 313/4x23 inches. Alliance Graphique, Paris. Condition A: minor abrasions in image. Six years had passed since Cassandre first designed a poster for this company, and his stylistic evolution is evident. It is more picturesque, and gains in its evocative power what it loses in emblematic force. While the image and the concept are more or less the same, there are a handful of significant differences. The colors are softer, as are the contrasts between the colors (now being more gradated shades of brown). In the intervening years Cassandre had become a typography virtuoso, and here he is able to reduce the already minimal outline of the face by using the lettering to build the left side of the man's head. The head has been jauntily tilted at an angle and the pipe now conforms to one of Cassandre's favorite graphic games; its outline changes color past the confines of the head. If one views contemporary photographs of Cassandre with a pipe it is easy to imagine this poster as something of a self-portrait. Mouron ill. 67.
