?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
JOSEPHINE BAKER / COLUMBIA. 1932-33. 301/4x221/2 inches. Edita, Paris. Condition B+: water stain along vertical and horizontal folds; tape affixed to top margin; tape stain on verso; creases in image. Paper. Second only to The Black Birds this image is certainly the rarest of Paul Colin's posters featuring black performers, and it is the last poster he designed for his muse, Josephine Baker. This poster was probably issued to promote the recordings of songs from her night club act, "Paris qui Remue," which opened on December 3, 1932, and for which Colin also designed the poster. We make this assumption because, had the poster promoted the album of Baker's 1930 show, "Paris qui Chante," Columbia would more likely have used a catchy advertising phrase like "the revelation," or another such tantalizing adjective, as was typical of the company's earlier, dynamic years. To design the poster Colin uses one of his favorite tricks, placing Josephine's bust in a slanted frame (see previous lot). He surrounds her portrait with lithe, free-hand drawings of the dancer, like the ones he used in numerous publications beginning with her memoirs in 1927. The image is a tribute to Baker as both a singer and a dancer. Weill no. 164, p. 209.
