?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
MANUEL ORAZI (1860-1934) LA MAISON MODERNE. 1900. 32 1/4x46 inches. J. Minot, Paris. B: restored loss in lower left of image, including half of artist's monogram and back of chair; repaired tears in image. Orazi was born in Rome, received his artistic training at the famed Italian printing house of Ricordi, and then moved to Paris where he achieved instant success by participating in the second exhibition at Siegfried Bing's gallery L'Art Nouveau, for which he designed Le Calendrier Fantastique. He went on to design this, one of his most famous posters for Bing's competitor, Julius Meyer-Graefe, who opened up La Maison Moderne in 1898. Meyer-Graefe had spent time with the avant-garde artistic community in Berlin (he had helped establish the influential magazine Pan) before he came to Paris and opened up his store dedicated to art nouveau finery of the day, including pottery, glass, lamps and jewelry. He employed top notch designers like Van de Velde to help him with his merchandise and called on some top poster designers, like Orazi and Maurice Biais, to create his advertising. This image highlights not only the extreme elegance of the women who frequented the store, but specifically draws attention to many of the fine items that were for sale, including the armchair, jewelry, and bibelots, each one of which is depicted clearly enough to show that they were designed in the purest of Art Nouveau style. Orazi himself designed some items to be sold in the store, as well as this extremely rare and important poster. DFP II 676, Weill 51, Wagner 80, Abdy p. 162, Maitres 1900 p. 28.
