?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
LE PETIT SOU. 1900. 55x38 3/4 inches. Charles Verneau. Condition A-: cracks and minor restoration in top and bottom margins; vertical and horizontal folds. This poster was orignally printed as a three sheet ensemble; the image (which we offer here) and two text banners which went above and below the image. The text banners advertise the newspaper "Le Petit Sou" (The Little Penny) and state its political orientation --"The Journal of Social Defense". Using this theme Steinlen creates one of the most lyrical, social images ever produced by lithography. The allegorical scene is reminiscent of Eugene Delacroix's famous painting Liberty Leading the People<>. Here, Liberty is leading workers, young and old alike, towards the Sacre Coeur<> church, in a symbolic storming of "the new Bastille", where the multitudes are worshipping a golden calf. This is Steinlen's most "openly propagandistic" poster which exemplifies his "vigorous drawing style which in turn captures broader social meanings" (Cate And Gill p. 126 and 13). Crauzat p. 137, Bargiel & Zagrodski p. 66, Gold 86 (var).
