Oct 02, 2003 - Sale 1978

Sale 1978 - Lot 11

Price Realized: $ 11,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
UNITED STATES LINES. 1928.
39x241/4 inches. Hachard, Paris.
Condition A-: minor printer's creases in image.
In a close-up view, playing with vertical perspective, Cassandre represents a ship by painting only her three elongated funnels designed in the Liner's corporate colors: red, white and blue. What could very well be handled as a simple image becomes a graphic blockbuster thanks to Cassandre's work with light and shadow, the vibrating white outline around the funnels (implying the subtle yet omnipresent hum of the ship at sea), and the subdued background. Cassandre was obviously not responsible for the empty space and ordinary typography at the bottom of the poster, as his maquette for the piece carries a much more inspired treatment. Mouron / Cassandre 103, p. 65 (var), Suntory 71, p. 95.