?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
FRANCIS BERNARD (1900-1979) PARTEZ ET DORMEZ... 383/4x24 inches. Paul-Martial, Paris. Condition A: creases in image. Although this poster is unsigned we know it can only have been designed by Francis Bernard. Bernard was under contract with the printing house Paul-Martial, working extensively for them as their art director until the Second World War. Aside from that, the poster stylistically bears many of his trademark design elements including the photograph of the sleeping car within a circle. The route of the night train between Paris and London is symbolically outlined, with green halos of airbrush for the countryside and a splash of blue airbrush in the middle to represent the English Channel. The termini of the route are printed in white, horizontal lettering and the two harbors are depicted in asymetric red lettering. Following Cassandre's invention for his Etoile du Nord poster, Bernard puts the names of the different Railways around the border of the poster. And he perfectly arranges the central slogan "leave, sleep and arrive in good shape" at both the top and the bottom.
