May 08, 2006 - Sale 2079

Sale 2079 - Lot 37

Price Realized: $ 8,625
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
PAUL COLIN (1892-1986) MUSEE D'ETHNOGRAPHIE DU TROCADERO. 1930.
47x31 1/8 inches. Joseph Charles, Paris.
Condition A-: minor repaired tears in margins.
The Ethnographic Museum was founded in 1878. In 1930, when all of Paris was abuzz about the approaching Colonial Exhibition (to be held in 1931), the museum opened up spectacular new exhibition spaces. Among the new and wonderful treasures to be discovered in the refurbished halls was a massive sculpted head from Easter Island. This image appears in a perfect plastic rendering on the poster as monolithic graphically as it was in real life. Colin has added an African Punu mask onto the ear of the sculpture. This, indicative of the full scope of the museum's holdings, is said to have been a piece from Colin's own collection, as he was an avid collector of primitive art. Given that Colin's primary artistic focus was on Music Hall posters, this is his best image for a cultural event, and also one of the rarest. Not in Colin, Affiche Reclame 112.