May 10, 2004 - Sale 2006

Sale 2006 - Lot 7

Price Realized: $ 9,200
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
CHRIS LEBEAU (1878-1945) DE MAGIER. Circa 1914.
50x34 inches. Lankhout, Den Haag.
Condition B+: repaired tears and creases in margins; creases in image; horizontal fold.
Lebeau was active in all branches of the decorative arts, and had an extensive art education around Holland, studying with many of the most prominent artists and theorists of his era. He worked actively as an artist and teacher himself in Haarlem, between 1900-1913 and ultimately moved to Czechoslovakia and then Berlin; he died in Dachau. This poster, advertising a theatrical production of G. K. Chesterton's book "Magic a Fantastic Comedy" is an inspired Dutch poster featuring two key elements that regularly can be found within the genre: the vertical symmetry and the esoteric, mysterious design. Within the egg-shaped central frame the wizard and his disciple are standing, in almost reverent poses, holding hands in a manner that forms a horizontal circle within the frame. The treatment of their bodies is meticulously stylized as is the typography and the decorative elements. Extremely rare. Modern Dutch no. 38, p. 73, Modern Poster no. 29, p. 61, Wendingen #5, May, 1919 p. 11.