31½x41 inches, 80x101½ cm. Hachard & Cie., Paris. Condition B+: repaired tears, creases and minor restoration in margins and image and along vertical and horizontal folds; slight foxing in image. Framed.
Cassandre's poster for the newspaper Le Progrès "symbolizes in a very expressive way the idea of progress, of moving forward" (Vendre, July 1930 p. 42). The design of this poster follows quite soon after Cassandre's masterwork for another French newspaper, L'Intransigeant, designed in 1948. "Here, it is again a face, a profile that is the motif of the poster, but this face is silent. It is that of a man who walks, forehead lowered towards progress, a distant horizon that the tip of an arrow indicates in space." (Vendre, October 1927, p. 347). An arrow in and of itself is certainly not a sophisticated design element, but "Cassandre knew how to renew it by imbuing it with his personal temperament. And he has, as a result, rehabilitated this unfortunate arrow, so worn out, so hackneyed, a symbol so clichéd that he has completely stripped its initial meaning . . . recognizing that the arrow is the most typical sign of the idea of direction, [Cassandre] did not hesitate to use it, but he found a way to incorporate it into the silhouette of his face, by geometrically combining on a yellowish background, black and white rectilinear areas. In this way he confers an identity of matter to the two elements of the image. And their ensemble has an undeniable vigor of allure and movement" (ibid). It has been pointed out that because Cassandre was charged with using the newspaper's letterhead that he was unable to incorporate his own creative typography into this poster. This is one of Cassandre's rarest posters; we could locate only 3 other copies at auction since 1993.
Crouse p. 103, Commercial Art / Art & Industry 1928, p. 20, Vendre October 1927, p. 347, Vendre July 1930, p. 42, Cassandre / Weill p. 48.
