?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
MAURICE BIAIS (1872-1926) WINTERGARTEN / SAHARET. 1902. 28x36 3/4 inches. Hollerbaum & Schmidt, Berlin. Condition B+: repaired tears in margins; paper skinning in top margin; minor creases in image. The son of a rich public notary, Maurice Biais was, professionally, a talented artist who designed numerous illustrations and graphics. Socially, however, he was no angel, and is remembered for his active Montmartre night life. In 1911 he married the performer Jane Avril, no angel herself, in a doomed, short-lived union. Throughout his career Biais traveled frequently, often to escape bad debts. In 1902 he was obviously in Berlin where he got this commission for Saharet, an Australian can-can dancer (1879-1942), who was appearing at one of Berlin's major music halls, the Wintergarten. In this excellent poster, Biais' style is evident in his use of flat colors with broad outlining of images, punctuated by small very detailed areas, and his great sense of movement and layout. The typography, however, seems to have been designed by the German printer. This poster also exists in a vertical format. Masters p. 170, Theater 103 (var), Wember, 132, DFP II, 75 (var).
