GEORGES LEPAPE (1887-1971) EXPOSITION INTERNATIONALE / PARIS. Original gouache maquette. 1937. 47x31 1/4 inches, 119 1/2x79 1/2 cm. Condition B: losses and tears at edges; tears, creases and chipping in image; tape on verso. Painted on brittle paper. Lepape designed several projects for Paris' 1937 International Exhibition. One of these unrealized projects is at the Musée Carnavalet, in Paris. This image is a variant of the one in the museum, in which the central figure is modestly covered by a flowing wrap and her two hands are separated. The version in the museum is not titled, however, and here Lepape refers to the allegorical image as "The Idea and the Hand." The reason this design was ultimately not selected for the poster can be summed up by Claude Lepape, the artist's son, who explains that during the later years of the 1930s 'eyes were already turning towards a more rational and less magical world' (Lepape p. 160).
