Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s Confetti (1894) will lead a sale of prints from the art nouveau period at Swann Auction Galleries.
The auction house comments: “One would hardly think that an artist of Toulouse-Lautrec's stature and wealth would normally apply his talents to advertise a product as routine as confetti.
“The explanation is that the British brothers who owned this company were poster collectors themselves, and even organized poster exhibitions at the Royal Aquarium, London, in 1894 and 1896, to which they invited Lautrec".
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec's adverts evoke turn of the century Paris
Lautrec’s advertisement art is evocative of Paris around the turn of the century and has a huge following.
This example is one of his lesser known works and is expected to make around $40,000-60,000.
A lithograph of his Moulin Rouge: La Goulue realised £314,500 ($529,618) at Christie’s in 2014.
Alphonse Mucha’s advert for Bleuze – Hadancourt Perfumeur (1899) is valued at $15,000-20,000 at the January 26 sale.
The auction house comments: “This poster, like the following lots, represents a new approach by Mucha in laying out his posters using more of the white of the paper to form decorative elements.
“Here, he adds the elements of the plumes of wafting perfume and the branches of the flowering tree for an extra layer of depth…
“We could find only five other copies at auction since 1991.”
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