ROGER BRODERS (1883-1953) ANTIBES. Circa 1928.
42 1/2x30 inches, 108x76 1/4 cm. Lucien Serre & Cie., Paris.
Condition B+: small replaced losses and overpainting in margins; repaired tears and restoration in margins and along horizontal folds.
This image, evoking the stylish, languid reminiscences of an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, is an uncanny example of art imitating life, imitating art. Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, stayed in this Riviera town in 1926, and it was during his time there that he began writing his novel Tender is the Night. This poster has never been definitively dated, and is usually cited as circa 1927, but the stylistic rendering of the main figures is too sophisticated to have been so early. A visual chronology of Broders' works shows that he began to master the use of diffident characters with elongated bodies in 1928. This poster most commonly appears with a round version of the PLM logo in the upper right corner. This is a rare variant without the overprint. Broders p. 91, Riviera 60, La Mer p. 116, Azur 144, Perry / Broders p. 27.