Page 88 - Swann Galleries - Modernist Posters - Sale 2314 - May 13, 2013

ADOLPHE MOURON CASSANDRE (1901-1968)
102 ● VIAGGIATE DI NOTTE / IN WAGONS LITS. 1930.
39x24 inches, 100x61 cm. L. Danel, Lille.
Condition B / B+: expertly restored loss in upper right corner including text; repaired tears, restoration and
creases in image; text strip, “carrozze” affixed to text at bottom.
For the Wagons Lits (a sleeping car company), Cassandre choses an “unquestionably persuasive”
(Mouron p. 69), symbolic and poetic approach to advertising. Rather than focusing on the sleeping
car or the internal trappings of night travel by rail, Cassandre depicts the evening outside the carriage,
showing the deep blue sky pierced by an eye-like red signal along the rails. “The breath-takingly simple
device of a red light glowing in the foggy darkness of a railroad siding is perfectly consistent with our
poetically charged experience of looking out the window of a speeding night express” (ibid). It is an
elegant and inviting approach, evoking travel by night. The poster exists with different text variants,
but this one is the least cluttered. This is also the RARE Italian version. We could locate only one other
copy in the collection of the Suntory Museum in Japan. Cassandre / Suntory 54B, Mouron pl. 24
(var) Cassandre / Tokyo 41 (var), Cassandre / Weill p. 37 (var), p. 78, Reina Sofia p. 170 (var), Brown
& Reinhold 27 (var). [3,000/4,000]