Oct 02, 2003 - Sale 1978

Sale 1978 - Lot 70

Price Realized: $ 9,775
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
PALAIS DE LA NOUVEAUTE. 1928.
461/4x63 inches. L'Affichage National Dufayel, Paris. [Creations Dorland-Paris]
Condition B+: expertly restored losses and overpainting in top and left margins, slightly affecting image; repaired tears and creases in margins and image; overpainting in margins; vertical and horizontal folds.
Sepo also designed a series of posters for this department store, which was another client of Dorland's. For the summer holidays in 1928, he has taken a rather avant-garde approach to advertising. Rather than illustrating models wearing the new fashions available for sale, he chooses to symbolize the escape from the city to the country, the sea, wherever the bourgeoisie would go on their holidays with a train. It is an exciting choice and an exciting image, realized in Machine Age majesty, of a cubistically stylized engine coming right out of the poster and crossing over the typography arrayed at the bottom. In the background, the hint of hills, and even the ocean, is suggested via wavy lines. Capturing the thrill of traveling by train, this poster is both a clever use of the horizontal format and a very original way to advertise summer fashions! To help print and post posters of this size, Dorland used the services of Dufayel, one of France's largest outdoor advertising companies. Sepo-Universita di Parma, 1979, pl. 49, p. 157.