?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
EUGÈNE GRASSET (1841-1917) LIBRAIRIE ROMANTIQUE. 1887. 50 1/2x34 inches, 128 1/4x84 1/2 cm. J. Bognard, Paris. Condition B: overpainting and flaking in lower left corner; repaired tears, restored losses, creases, abrasions and overpainting in margins and image and along vertical and horizontal folds. Just the second poster Grasset designed, this image advertises a series of books on the history of romanticism. The image itself is an homage to Gothic romance, featuring a young woman, clad in 1830s attire, sitting on a pile of old books, a skull at her feet, absorbed in her reading. In the background, the gothic façade of Notre Dame (perhaps a tribute to Victor Hugo) glows in the twilight. "This gentle and delightful work is singled out by Maindron for special praise, as one of the four best posters of the period . . . [and] in the exhibition at the Salon des Cent, it was generally considered to be Grasset's masterpiece" (Abdy p. 124). The blank text box would have been filled with the particulars of the latest publication. Arwas p. 32, Grasset p. 106, Abdy p.125, Wember 371, Wine Spectator 31, Gold 84, DFP-II 398, Maindron p. 129, Maitres pl. 42, Art Nouveau p. 102.
