May 03, 2018 - Sale 2476

Sale 2476 - Lot 152

Price Realized: $ 8,450
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
GEORGES LEPAPE (1887-1971) 24ME SALON DE LA SOCIÉTÉ DES ARTISTES DÉCORATEURS. Group of 5 color proofs and final poster. 1934.
Sizes vary, each approximately 62x47 inches, 157 1/2x119 1/2 cm. H. Chachoin, Paris.
Condition varies, generally B+ / A-: tears, some into image; orange staining along left edge of some proofs; creases in margins and image. Four paper, final poster linen-backed with wooden dowels and string for hanging.
In the 1930s, the world of French decorative designers split into two factions - those with a more modernist bent founded the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM) and the more traditional designers exhibited with the Salon des Artistes Decorateurs. Lepape was aligned with the second group, and was asked to design the poster for their 1934 exhibition. This rare image is a play on the Birth of Venus, in which a woman lounges in a shell against a decorative and abstract ocean and the sensuous curve of the typography echoes the waves. Even more unusual are the five individual color plates that accompany the poster, essentially providing the lithographic roadmap for how Lepape printed the image. We could find no other copies at auction. Lepape p. 160.