?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
L'ECLAIR . Portfolio with illustrated cover and 32 hand-colored plates. Each image approximately 13x9 1/4 inches. Heliotype Buirette, Paris. Condition varies, generally A-: foxing in a few plates. During the 1890s most of Europe, and America, was gripped by unbridled poster mania. This new "art of the street" was turning gray city walls into vibrant billboards, touting, with vitality and enthusiasm, the new commercial world as heralded in by the Industrial Revolution. A natural extension of the poster lust was the popularity of poster contests. In 1895 the Century Magazine sponsored a competition (see lot XXX), Bio-Borax held one in 1898, 1899 saw "La Lune a Un Metre" (a competition for the poster to advertise the telescope at the 1900 Paris Exhibition), and, in 1897, this competition held by the nationalist newspaper L'Eclair<>, in honor of their 10th anniversary. The jury consisted of the most prestigious poster artists and academic artists of the day; among the most recognizable names were Jules Cheret, Eugene Grasset, Leo Forain, Albert Guillaume, Alphonse Mucha, Theofile-Alexandre Steinlen, Adolph Willette and other important painters. The winning entry was by an American artist, Henry Thomas, whose poster was sold by La Plume<> and became memorialized as Les Maitres de l'Affiche<> plate 222. Second prize was awarded to Eugene Vavasseur, who went on to create the famous image for Ripolin Brothers<> paint. L'Eclair<> also chose to publish the 100 of the top entries, choosing a similar format to that of Les Maitres de l'Affiche<>, in that the reproductions were small in size and issued in small series. The 32 plates offered here are of exceptional interest as a window into what was the prevailing commercial style of that time. They present a triumph of Art Nouveau. The names of well known artists such as Georges Meunier and Georges Lefevre appear side by side with names of artists sadly not remembered over time. All 100 plates must surely have been completed as Roger Braun in his Bibliographie et Iconographie de l'Affiche Illustre<> (La Vieux Papier, 1908) mentions them. That said, we don't believe a complete portfolio has ever surfaced and the individual plates themselves are rarely seen. Most likely the subscription was not a very successful one. This is a very rare document and an interesting decorative ensemble.
