Page 65 - Swann Galleries - Modernist Posters - Sale 2314 - May 13, 2013

ORSI (1889-1947)
76 ● LAMPE FLUORESCENTE / PHILIPS. Circa 1940.
621/2x45 3/4 inches, 1583/4x1151/2 cm. Bedos & Cie, Paris.
Condition B+ / A-: restoration and minor restored losses in margins.
The expansive Bénézit Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, writes of Orsi that
“his name should have an important place in the history of posters on behalf of his innovative aesthetics.”
Bénézit goes on to praise Orsi’s sense of simplification, his bright colors and his creative ideas. Bénézit
estimates that Orsi designed as many as 1,000 posters. Despite this prodigious output, nothing else has
been written on the artist and no portrait of him exists. Philips was one of his primary clients, and here,
the pointillist effect he creates to advertise a fluorescent light bulb is a classic example of the extent of
his talent. The diagonal of the bulb itself, the unique handling of the coloring, the typography and the
overall feeling of fluorescence make this an exceptional image. [4,000/6,000]