?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
[MAITRES DE L'AFFICHE.] Two plates, 47, 26. 1896. Each approximately 153/4x111/2 inches. Chaix, Paris. Condition varies, generally A. Printed by the Chaix publishing house as a consession to the growing craze of poster collecting at the end of the 19th century, the Maitres de l'Affiche (Masters of the Poster) were small format reproductions of what were, ostensibly, the best and most famous posters from around Europe and America as selected by the famous critic (and poster supporter) Roger Marx. There are 256 images in the series, and each of the plates is a full color lithograph printed on high quality paper; they were issued to subscribers on a monthly basis, in groups of four. Intended to reflect the pillars within the pantheon of poster design in their Golden Age, the Maitres were actually biased towards the French. A full one quarter of the plates were posters by Jules Cheret, and half of all the plates were French. This can be explained because posters were arguably a French art form, having been developed and nurtured in France; because Jules Cheret (unanimously considered to be the "father of the poster") was the director of printing of Chaix and because posters as a widespread art form in Germany and Italy didn't take off until after 1900, when the art form was on the wane in France. Thus the foreign (non French) posters in the series were the examples that were available in the Parisian poster galleries. The appeal of the Maitres was, and remains, their small, easy-to-collect format. All of the images we are offering here come from the first year of the publication, 1896.
![[MAITRES DE LAFFICHE.] Two plates, 47, 26. 1896. Each approximately 15x11 inches. Chaix, Paris.](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//162\523162.jpg)
