54x39 inches, 137¼x99½ cm. Charle Verneau, Paris. Condition B+ / A-: repaired tears in margins; creases in margins and image and along vertical and horizontal folds.
Eugen Sandow, a renowned bodybuilder and celebrity of the Victorian era, was often referred to as the "Father of Modern Bodybuilding." Having modeled his physique on sculptures of Greek athletes, he was a natural superstar and found fame as one of Ziegield's first performers touring Europe. This poster, in which the sculptural (and nude) figure shows off to the scrawny onlooker, is an example of one of Sandow's many fitness enterprises, which included publications, nutritional products and exercise devices. Anyone who wanted to purchase the Combined Developer could do so for $5, including "anatomical charts with full directions in Sandow's celebrated system of physical culture." He opened the The Institute of Physical Culture in London in 1897, and eventually founded the Curative Institute of Physical Culture. DFP-II 336.
