SCALA / MESSALINETTE. Circa 1905. 47x31 1/4 inches. Charles Verneau, Paris. Condition A-: restoration along top margin; sharp vertical and horizontal folds. La Scala was the most elegant café-concert in Paris, attracting the best public with the best shows. Originally just a music-hall, after 1900 they began adding short plays both with and without music. Marguerite Deval was a frequent star of these minor comic productions (see lot 4). While nothing is known about Lucien Fauré biographically, he clearly designed one of his best posters, filled with action, suspense, and mystery, for this show. Marguerite Deval is tenderly drawn in two colors, but Fauré accents the action with darker hues for the chair and the hand of her unseen assailant. Previously unrecorded.
