?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
MANUEL ORAZI (1860-1934)
LIGUE VINICOLE DE FRANCE. Circa 1901.
39x54 inches, 99x137 1/4 cm. Charles Verneau, Paris. Condition A-: minor restoration along horizontal fold.
Years before modern medicine could actually confirm the claims, the French regarded wine as a drink that was almost healthy, unlike distilled spirits (especially absinthe), which were considered the enemy of the working class. Such positive public perception was brought about by lobbying organizations like La Ligue Vinicole, the French Wine Guild. To make their case, they even quote Frédéric Passy, the famed economist and winner of the 1901 Nobel Peace Prize, who encouraged the French to drink "natural, healthy wine." Orazi designed posters throughout the Art Nouveau era, all of which remain striking and flamboyant. Here, he created a symbolic image of the positive attributes of wine drinking, with a woman, dressed a l'antique, sensually crushing grapes in a bowl into which a little cupid dips his arrow. Wine Spectator 91.
