Nov 10, 2001 - Sale 1914

Sale 1914 - Lot 35

Price Realized: $ 7,475
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
PIERRE FIX-MASSEAUCOTE D'AZUR. 1929.
39 1/8x24 3/8 inches. L. Daniel, Lille.
Condition B+: expert restoration in margins and corners.
One of the classic Art Deco train images, Fix-Masseau borrows liberally from the work of Cassandre in creating this masterpiece. With text displaced around the outside of the image, and a tiny distant focal point, from which both the train and the tracks are emerging, one is instantly remind of Cassandre's Nord Express<>. Yet, in a noticeable break from Cassandre's concept, Fix-Masseau's image has the train rushing towards the viewer, not away, and the mountains alongside the train echo the wafting smoke from the locomotive's funnel. In 1932 Fix-Masseau designed another pillar in the Pantheon of Art Deco travel posters when he depicted the on-time arrival of a similar engine pulling into a station under the heading Exactitude<>. D'Azur 14, Le Train 268, Golden Age 132.