Paris-Almanach

Artist Georges de Feure (French, 1868–1943)

Date1894

MediumColor lithograph

DimensionsImage: 31 × 23 1/4 inches (78.7 × 59.1 cm);
Sheet: 31 1/2 × 24 3/8 inches (80 × 61.9 cm)

ClassificationsPosters

Credit LineGift of Isabel and William Berley, Classes of 1947 and 1945

Terms

Posters
Color lithograph
ivory wove paper
French

Object number99.078.091

Label CopyDe Feure’s poster for this popular guidebook to cultural life in Paris presents a sight traditionally less seen in the streets of Paris: a young woman strolling the town on her own. The boldness of her activity is signaled by the quizzical look she receives from a middle-aged businessman hurrying by. Interestingly, in the background, de Feure has chosen to depict a brightly lit print-seller’s shop, with prints hung tightly together on the wall; passersby have congregated to examine them. This conceit perhaps conveys that although de Feure’s poster has an advertising purpose, it may belong equally well on the wall of a print dealer as a work of fine art, as was the case with many posters in the final decade of the nineteenth century.

(Andrew C. Weislogel, "Mirror of the City: The Printed View in Italy and Beyond, 1450–1940," catalogue accompanying an exhibition organized by the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, curated by Andrew C. Weislogel and Stuart M. Blumin, and presented at the Johnson Museum August 11–December 23, 2012)

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