JULIEN LACAZE (1886-1971) PARIS. Circa 1935. 39 1/4x24 1/4 inches, 99 3/4x61 1/2 cm. Chaix, Paris. Condition A-: minor creases and abrasions in margins and text; time-staining at edges. Lacaze was a landscape painter who began designing posters for the French railway companies in 1910. His well-composed images are consistently colorful and detailed, often including local architectural or structural highlights, but rarely feature people. Working primarily for the Cornille & Serre printing house, his prodigious output includes images for the PLM, Chemins de fer de l'Etat, Chemins de fer de Midi and the Belgian Chemins de fer de Alsace et de Lorraine, among others. Lacaze belongs to a talented group of French Art Deco travel poster designers that includes Roger Soubie, Pierre Commarmond, Geo Dorival, Charles Hallo (Alo) and Constant Duval, whose works are recognized as the archetypal style of the era. Here, we see his view of the Place de la Concorde, with the Obelisk of Luxor, and the Fontaine de Mers in the foreground (the Fontaine des Fleuves being obscured) and in the background the Madeleine, visible at the end of Rue Royale. One in a series of posters published in the mid 1930s by Les Grands Réseaux de Chemins de Fer Francais, as opposed to any single railway line, promoting travel to Paris. Other posters in the series promoting travel by train to Paris were designed by A.M. Cassandre, Robert Falcucci and Roger de Valerio.
