Le Journal des Ventes

Georges de Feure, Le Journal des Ventes, c.19th colour lithographed poster  issued in Les Maîtres de l’Affiche, Paris.

The poster advertises the Journal des Ventes (Journal of the Auctions).

The composition presents an elegantly attired female figure enveloped in a richly harmonised tonal scheme. De Feure restricts his palette largely to brown, green, and subdued pink in the roses, yet achieves a remarkable range of tonal variation and depth. As noted by Abdy, it is “De Feure’s finest poster, and one of the most beautiful of the whole period… a triumph of colour and design… He uses only brown, green and dull pink in the roses. Yet every possible shade of brown is in the poster, and the effect is a great richness and concentration of colour, like a mountain of brushed up autumn leafs… [She] is dressed in the height of imaginative fashion, and her hat is a victory of the milliner’s art” (Abdy, p.156).

The poster was immediately recognised by contemporary critics for its refinement and decorative unity. Rennert records that it “was immediately seized upon by contemporary critics and hailed as one of the finest works of its kind” (Rennert, PAI-XXVIII, 306). The elongated figure, flowing contours, and integration of typography exemplify the mature Art Nouveau style associated with de Feure and the international poster movement of the 1890s.