Dec 18, 2003 - Sale 1991

Sale 1991 - Lot 54

Price Realized: $ 1,725
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
LUCIEN LEFEVRE ELECTRICINE. 1894.
97x34 inches. Chaix, Paris.
Condition A-: repaired tears and overpainting in top and right margins.
Lefevre, along with Georges Meunier, Lucien Baylac and Rene Pean, was one of Jules Cheret's disciples who all worked as part of the creative team at the Chaix printing plant. Such a stable of impressive artists gave Chaix the opportunity to line up major accounts to try and replicate Cheret's successes. Electricine, a manufacturer of lamp oil, is a good example. One of Cheret's biggest accounts was Saxoleine which precluded him for designing advertising for competing products. So the commission was passed on to Lefevre and Baylac, who could advertise the product in the style of Cheret without any conflict of interest! And this image really does replicate Cheret's style, with the colors, the drawing and the use of the vertical format all being classic components of the Cheret school. DFP II 513.