?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
LUDEK MAROLD (1865-1898) NÀS DUM V ASANACI. 1898. 48 7/8x36 3/4 inches. Ustav Umel V. Neubert, Prague. Condition A-: minor repaired tears in margins; minor restored loss in bottom right margin; crease in image. Prague-born Ludek Marold studied painting at the Academy of Arts in his home city and also at the academy in Munich. Considered one of the best painters of his young generation he also went to study painting at Paris' School of Decorative Arts in 1889. However practical considerations soon overtook his artistic ambitions and he began to submit illustrations to books and magazines. He illustrated over seventy books, and his images appeared in all of the prominent French magazines (Le Monde Illustré, La Revue Illustré, Figaro Illustré, Courrier Francaise, Soleil du Dimanche etc). From 1894-1895 he worked for the Parisian printer Lemercier, during which time he was the only primary artist working for the firm. His prolific output of posters covered all of the advertising staples: beer, tea (see Swann auction #1991, lot 68), rolling papers, chocolate, perfume, bicycles, lamps and more. In 1895 he designed a series of posters for Britain's circus impresario Imre Kiralfy, advertising his giant spectacles and productions during the Empire of India Exhibition. Marold returned to Prague at the end of 1897, and this was the last poster he designed. It is considered to be the only one that he personally painted onto the lithographic stone. Freely borrowing from Cheret's "Theatrophone," it is advertising the play "Our house in Renovation." Most likely it depicts the Czech actress Marie Rysava, who was a regular performer at this theatre. Czech Posters p. 17, Theatre Plakat 136, Maitres 1900 p. 203, Affiches Belle Epoque 171, Affiche Miroir 69.
