Date: 1930s
Size: 148 x 90 inches
Notes: Poster, Oversized, Linen backed
Artist: Vincent, Rene
About The Poster: It's probably not wise for a poster dealer to disclose their personal favorites, but I have to admit that Vincent is among the top designers I admire most: not necessarily because his art is meaningful or 'important' but perhaps because it is fun, spirited and it never fails to make me smile. Vincent had a long and happy affiliation with Le Bon Marche, a department store which exists to this day in Paris.
Wikipedia writes of the store that Le Bon Marché ('the good market,' or 'the good deal' in French] is the name of one of the most famous department stores in Paris, France. It is sometimes regarded as the first department store in the world. Although this depends on what is meant by 'department store,' it may have had the first specially-designed building for a store in Paris. The store was founded as a small shop in Paris during 1838 and was a fixed-price department store from about 1850. It was a successful business, and a new building was constructed for the store by Louis Auguste Boileau in 1867. Louis Charles Boileau, his son, continued the store in the 1870s, consulting the firm of Gustave Eiffel for parts of its structure.
Louis Hippolyte Boileau, the grandson of Louis Auguste, worked on an extension to the store in the 1920s - just around the time this poster would have been designed. Aside from the unbelievable size of this mammoth and monumental work - it is 90 x 148 inches - I just think the colors, the layout, the characterization of the women, the child, the roasted chestnut seller, EVERYTHING, is perfect. (Okay, I have never been objective, and when it comes to posters and Vincent I am remarkably not so...) This wonderful work is linen backed and in very good condition.