May 10, 2016 - Sale 2414

Sale 2414 - Lot 88

Price Realized: $ 2,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
JEAN CHASSAING (1905-1938) JANIE MARÈSE. Circa 1928.
60x44 inches, 152 1/2x111 3/4 cm.
Condition B: losses, restored losses, repaired tears, creases, abrasions and staining in margins and image; creases and restoration along horizontal folds; minor rippling in upper left image.
This is most likely one of the earlier poster portraits that Chassaing designed, and Colin's influence on the young artist is extremely apparent. The basic graphic design adheres quite closely to Colin's poster Sylvie, complete with dark planes of color to punctuate the image and large typography arrayed along the bottom. These similarities aside, Chassaing has adopted much more of a caricature style of portraiture than Colin, whose portraits tend to be more realistic. In this poster, Chassaing was lucky enough to catch the rising young starlet before the peak of her success, which ended abruptly with her untimely death (at 23), in 1931. Janie Marèse was born in 1908, and began her show business career by singing operettas at the Théatre Marigny. At the end of 1930, she was chosen by Jean Renoir to co-star with Michel Simon in his film La Chienne. The film was shot in the spring of 1931 and Marèse died shortly thereafter in a car accident on the road between St. Maxine and St. Tropez. This is certainly the only poster-portrait that was ever made of her.