ROGER BRODERS (1883-1953) DUNKERQUE. Circa 1930.
39 1/4x24 3/4 inches, 99 3/4x63 cm. Lucien Serre & Cie., Paris.
Condition B+: expertly-replaced upper right corner, affecting text; repaired tears at bottom edge into text and image; minor repaired tears in margins; creases in margins and image and along horizontal fold. Mounted on paper, which is mounted to board.
"In order to work with precision and to give his designs the realism he wanted, Roger Broders executed most of his posters after tourist postcards" (Broders p.13). This is his only poster for the Chemin de Fer du Nord, and shows a couple on their yacht pulling into the busy port of Dunkerque. Edited by the Syndicat d'Initiatives (the local tourist office, pronounced "Essi" after its initials, "S.I."), the poster does not illustrate what a traveler arriving in the city by train would necessarily experience, but does create a refined mood of elegance and ease, and projects a sophisticated image which the railway and Essi would have been looking to impress upon its riders. It is one of only four images Broders designed that features an elegant couple in the foreground. Each of the major reference books on the artist cites a different date for this poster. We were only able to locate two records of this poster having come up for auction previously. rare. Broders cover and p. 37, Perry / Broders p. 30, La Mer p. 138, Crouse p. 304.