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JEAN CARLU (1900-1997) THÉÂTRE PIGALE. 1929.
60x41 1/4 inches, 152 1/2x105 cm. H. Chachoin, Paris.
Condition B+: repaired tears, creases and restoration in margins, image and text; restored losses in margins and corners; restoration along horizontal fold.
Jean Carlu was born in France into a family or architects and had originally planned on entering that profession. However, the loss of his arm at the age of eighteen caused him to instead turn to the world of Graphic design. From 1925 to 1930, Carlu was at the peak of his creativity and designed what are still considered to be his best posters. During this period, Carlu's designs were influenced by the spatial nuances, angles and abstracted forms of Cubism. The first of those modernist images was in 1925 for Mon Savon (see previous lot). The result was so enthusiastically received by both the public and Philippe de Rothschild, one of the owners of Mon Savon, that Rothschild called on him again, in 1929, to work on another "family" project: the Théâtre Pigalle. Baron Henri de Rothschild, Philippe's father (financier and noted playwright under the name André Pascal), had decided to open an ultra-modern theater in Paris and put his son in charge of the project. Influenced by the theaters of Germany, the stage machinery and the lighting, designed by the architect Charles Siclis, were of the most advanced technology of the time. Walking into the theater, "the foyer was lighted by 'a wall of rainbow flame,' the interior, including a gallery and an exposition room, was of mahogany and dull rose, and the building was surmounted by a conning tower for viewing Paris." (The Independent Theater in Europe, p. 92). According to Carlu himself, "the poster to launch the theater was an evocation of the lighting and the machinery. A symbolic sketch of a machine and the colors spectrum in a spotlight aiming at a built décor" (Musee de l'Affiche, interview by Alain Weill 1980). With symbolic, mechanical forms, and an almost draftsman-like quality to the design, Carlu creates and image that highlights the innovative aspects of the Théâtre Pigalle, while also encapsulating the efficiency and modernity of this industrial era. This is one of two posters Carlu designed for the theatre, the other advertising one of their first productions. This image, promoting the theatres ultra-modern lighting and stage machinery, was also used on the cover of a brochure promoting the opening of the theatre. The theatre was torn down in 1959 to make way for a parking lot. Carlu 21, Brockmann p. 172, Weill 356, Miller, 92.