?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
ROLAND COUDON (1897-1954) KING KONG. 1933. 63x46 inches, 160x116 3/4 cm. Presse Universitaires de France, Paris. Condition A-: minor abrasions and restoration along vertical and horizontal folds; creases in margins and image. The perennial secret island, giant-ape adventure took the world by storm when it debuted in 1933. Released in other countries later that same year, international versions of the poster tended to show Kong on top of the Empire State Building, swatting at airplanes high above the New York City skyline, and most depicting Fay Wray in his hand. This French version stands alone as one of the most unique images amongst the original release posters. The scene is of Fay Wray being offered up for sacrifice to King Kong on Skull Island. While not perhaps the movie's most memorable scene (which would be the Empire State Building), it is the scene where the audience views Kong for the first time. It is also a powerful, primal scene, held beneath the glare of hundreds of island torches and the pulsating beat of native drums. The intensity and sexuality of the moment is captured by Coudon, who was an accomplished French movie poster designer working primarily in the 1920s and 1930s. Graven Images p. 45.
