GEORGES MEUNIER (1869-1942) PARFUMERIE EDEA. 483/4x341/4 inches. Chaix, Ateliers Cheret, Paris. Condition B: losses, tears and discoloration in margins; creases, abrasions and repaired tears in image; pinholes in top and bottom margins. Georges Meunier, who designed more than 100 posters, was the most talented of all the young artists who worked under Cheret at the Chaix printing house. He began his career working on commissions that Cheret passed on to him, but soon developed his own following and clientele. In the individual style his women are more varied and his palette of colors is actually richer, as he didn't use the restricted coloring system that became Cheret's signature in the 1890s. "Georges Meunier was one of the painters of talent and charm . . . who are the smiling illustrators of their time. . . a pupil of Cheret . . . his philosophy of the poster was the same 'toujours les femmes et les rires' "(Abdy p. 63). He may have begun as a disciple, but her rose to the status of master himself. One of Meunier's classic images, featuring a young beauty virtually slipping out of her décolletage in the privacy of her boudoir. Clearly a woman who cares for how she looks (she is using two mirrors, after all) she is a proud and vain spokeswoman for the products being advertised.
