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A. M. CASSANDRE (ADOLPHE MOURON, 1901-1968)
79
•
[HARPER’S BAZAAR.] Gouache maquette on artist’s board. 1938.
14
1
/
2
x11
1
/
2
inches, 37x29 cm.
Condition A-: minor abrasions and restoration in image. Signed by the artist in gouache.
Cassandre moved to New York in late 1936. He was welcomed to America by the highest echelons of
designers and art directors. Amongst his biggest supporters were Charles Coiner and Alexey
Brodovitch, who had known Cassandre since he lived in Paris in the 1920s. As Brodovitch had
recently become art director at Harper’s Bazaar, he hired Cassandre to design covers for the magazine,
which he did from the end of 1936 through the Spring of 1940. In all, Cassandre designed a total of
42 different covers. No longer in his geometric Art Deco phase, which lent itself to his posters of trains
and ships, Cassandre shifted focus to the world of fashion, inventing a symbolic language based on
Surrealism. Here, using subtle outlining and sophisticated touches with an airbrush, Cassandre master-
fully evokes the spirit of travel via his combined representation of a head and a map. This image is
stamped on the back by
Harper’s,
“April 19, 1938.” It was ultimately used as a cover in June of that
year. Suntory p. 119.
[4,000/6,000]