ADOLPHE MOURON CASSANDRE (1901-1968) L'OISEAU BLEU. 1929. 39x24 1/4 inches, 99x61 1/2 cm. L. Danel, Lille. Condition B+: repaired tears and restoration in corners and margins. For L'Oiseau Bleu, a Pullman overnight car on the Chemins de Fer du Nord, Cassandre creates a more metaphorical image than usual; not so much rendering a Machine Age image of the mode of transportation, but rather, suggesting it poetically. The signal and telegraph wires visible in the center of the image are the only indication that the poster is advertising travel by train. "In a highly effective metaphor for speed, a ["blue bird," the namesake of the train] is substituted for the express train hurtling past at full steam" (Mouron p. 64). The combination of the telegraph wires, the perspective of the sign, the incline of the typography and the direction of the bird all lead the viewer's eye towards a fixed vanishing point outside the poster. Mouron / Cassandre pl. 18, Brown & Reinhold 20, Cassandre / Tokyo 34, Cassandre / Suntory 56, p. 80, Reina Sophia p. 164, Cassandre / Weill p. 31.
