?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
WEILUC (LUCIEN HENRI WEIL) (1873-1947) LE FROU FROU. 1900. 61 3/4x44 1/2 inches. La Lithographie Nouvelle, Asnieres. Condition B+: restored losses and overpainting in corners, affecting image; repaired tears in margins and image; vertical and horizontal folds. Le Frou Frou <> was a naughty, humor magazine launched in 1900. From their inception their aim was to titilate. The first poster they issued was designed by Cappiello, who presented a provocative can-can girl. Immediately afterwards Weiluc was commissioned to create a new one and the result is a masterpiece of soft, turn-of-the-century eroticism in which a young woman, perhaps a dancing girl, is sitting on a sofa, with her legs protruding from her very visible petticoat. The contrast between the white linen of her undergarments and the black of her stockings and garters arrests the eye. More shocking then her pose, is the fact that she is smoking, an incredibly provocative act for a woman at that time. And Weiluc takes the smoke from that brazen cigarette and turns it into the title of the poster. Added to the carefree pose and the bravado of the smoke is the woman's langorous look, all of which combine to create the most exquisitely shocking (and arousing) poster of the period. Weiluc, who was a regular exhibitor at the Salon des Humoristes<>, and who became president of the Society of Humoristes in 1911, is well regarded for his far less daring portraits of Parisian characters. DFP II 874, Masters p. 61, Wine Spectator, pl. 64, Belle Epoque 164.
