VICTOR CRETEN (1878-1966) RED STAR LINE / ANVERS - NEW YORK. Circa 1900. 30 1/4x23 1/4 inches, 76 3/4x59 cm. J. Goffin Fils, Brussels. Condition B+ / B: repaired tears, creases and abrasions in margins and along sharp vertical and horizontal folds; skinning in left margin; fading in upper left corner; stains in image. Creten studied architecture at the Academie Royale des Beaux Arts in Brussels and most of his career was spent designing buildings (factories, apartments, country homes and civic buildings) and exhibition pavilions. This elegant, Art Nouveau poster focuses on the on-board idyll, with a passenger languidly enjoying an afternoon on deck. In the distance the Westernland is steaming across the ocean, suggesting that our passenger is currently on the deck of the Noordland, the sister ship who sailed same Antwerp to New York crossing. Creten designed fewer than a dozen posters. One cannot help but make a mental comparison to Toulouse-Lautrec's 1896 image for the Salon des Cent, which similarly features a woman reclining on a wooden deck chair as a liner passes by in the distance. Belle Epoque 47 (var), Weallans p. 15.
