ADOLPHE MOURON CASSANDRE (1901-1968) VIAGGIATE DI NOTTE / IN WAGONS LITS. 1930.
39 1/2x24 inches, 100 1/4x61 cm. L. Danel, Lille.
Condition B / B+: expertly restored loss in upper right corner affecting text; repaired tears, restoration and creases in image; text strip, "carrozze" affixed to text at bottom.
For the Wagons Lits (a sleeping car company), Cassandre chooses an "unquestionably persuasive," (Mouron p. 69), symbolic and poetic approach to advertising. Rather than focusing on the sleeping car or the internal trappings of night travel by rail, Cassandre depicts the evening outside the carriage, showing the deep blue sky pierced by an eye-like red signal along the rails. "The breath-takingly simple device of a red light glowing in the foggy darkness of a railroad siding is perfectly consistent with our poetically charged experience of looking out the window of a speeding night express" (ibid). It is an elegant, inviting approach evoking travel by night. The poster exists with different text variants, but this one is the least cluttered. This is also the rare Italian version. We could locate only one other copy in the collection of the Suntory Museum in Japan. Cassandre / Suntory 54B, Mouron pl. 24 (var) Cassandre / Tokyo 41 (var), Cassandre / Weill p. 37 (var), p. 78, Reina Sophia p. 170 (var), Brown & Reinhold p. 54 (var).