?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954) L'ART INDEPENDANT AU PETIT PALAIS. 1937. 29 1/4x19 1/2 inches, 74 1/4x49 1/2 cm. Mourlot, Paris. Condition B+: folds and creases in upper margin and image; tape along tears on verso. Paper. This seminal poster was the first printed to promote an official exhibition, of art owned by French institutions, in France. "Les Maitres de l'Art Independant," held at the Petit Palais, was organized as part of 1937's Exposition Universelle. The curator, Raymond Escholier, wrote in the preface to the exhibition's catalogue that Independent Art "was emphatically not all contemporary French art. It was one of its aspects, that which, for thirty years, has made an impact abroad . . ." (Art in France, p. 12). The poster was printed by Fernand Mourlot who went on after World War II to print posters for all the major French artists of the Ecole de Paris. Mourlot worked with Matisse on this project (the first time the two men collaborated), using the artist's painting, Le Reve (1935). The painting was brought to Mourlot's studio at the printing plant where Matisse "transformed freely the reproduction and did the same for the typography" (Mourlot p. 12). In addition to works by other artists, the exhibition contained 61 paintings by Matisse, 42 by Rouault, 33 by Bonnard, 29 by Braque, 27 by Leger and 32 by Picasso. Mourlot Affiches p. 12, Kunst-Ereignisse 56.
