RAPHAËL KIRCHNER Vivienne Segal A Ziegfeld Follies Century G

Sale 2465 - Lot 214

Price Realized: $ 2,750

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000

RAPHAËL KIRCHNER.
"Vivienne Segal: A Ziegfeld Follies Century Girl." Pastel, graphite, and opaque paint on paper, 1916. 610x457 mm; 24x18 inches, framed to an overall size of 27 1/2x21 1/2 inches. Signed in lower right. Contemporary frame with metal label along bottom marked "A Ziegfeld Girl/Raphaël Kirchner." Accompanied by Follies souvenir program cover tear sheet and photocopy of the original advertisement that was displayed in the Century Theatre, New York.

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A beautiful, soft, and sensual portrait of Segal which hung in the lobby of the historic Century Theater, home of the wildly popular popular Ziegfeld Follies revue, until its closing in 1936. Kirchner was among the masters of European Art Nouveau and famous as a postcard artist, popularizing the "Kirchner Girl," beauties whose portrayals were as famous as Charles Dana Gibson's "The Gibson Girl" was in America. He was introduced to the great showman Florenz Ziegfeld and New York City theater life by fellow Viennese designer and architect, Josef Urban, whose florid, ornate designs distinguished the show among other current revues. Kirchner joined Ziegfeld as a staff artist and together, over the next two years, they defined the tone and style of the shows, creating what quickly became a force of groundbreaking and sexually liberal modernity for a new century. His untimely death in 1917 led to the artistic appointment of Alberto Vargas, who went on to become one of the most celebrated pin-up artists of the 20th Century and who listed Kirchner among his most important influences.