ADOLPHE MOURON CASSANDRE (1901-1968) ÉTOILE DU NORD. 1927.
41½x29½ inches, 105½x75 cm. Hachard & Cie., Paris.
Condition B+: abrasions, tears and repaired tears at edges, some into text; minor abrasions and overpainting in image and along vertical and horizontal folds; repaired pin holes in corners.
L'Étoile du Nord was an absolute revolution in advertising when it first appeared in 1927. Although advertising a Pullman train, it was startlingly new to have a travel poster that depicted no landscape, no destination, and no train. The pure and powerful image is a tribute to the dramatic use of perspective, with the train represented metaphorically by the star dancing on the horizon where many rails converge in the distance. To keep the image as clean and unobstructed as possible, Cassandre corrals the typography at the very bottom of the composition and then organizes it in a neat and structured frame around the border. Here, he also develops one of his signature design elements: viewing an object from a low angle to make it seem larger than life and more impressive, a technique he perfected in his 1935 poster for the Normandie. Through his association with Maurice Moyrand, who was the agent for the printer L. Danel, (and with whom he would form the Alliance Graphique in 1930), Cassandre was commissioned to create two posters for the Chemins de fer du Nord in 1927. Mouron pl. 11, Cassandre / Weill 51, The Poster 185, Suntory 48, Reina Sofia p. 161, Modern Poster p. 151, Avant Garde p. 158, Muller-Brockmann 70, Weill 339, Art Deco Graphiques 5, MoMA 242.1987.