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This is a hand coloured, plate-signed pochoir print from the exclusive 1912 Parisian fashion publication Modes et Manieres d'Aujourd'hui (Plate V). One of a series of 12 pochoirs in a seminal work that defined the early French (or 'Romantic')Art Deco period. When Diaghilev returned to Paris in 1910 with his now famous Ballet Russe, his production of Scheherazade sparked a craze for Eastern exotics that drove fashion design for the next two decades. What Lepape gives us is the height of East-inspired elegance around 1912 - the very pampered, lithe and turban-clad Mme. reclining in her lavish bed of exotic cushions with a book of romantic poems, her refreshment and fabulous gems on every finger. The colours used are also not exactly subtle. So spectacular is this jewel image that it was chosen by Julian Robinson for the cover of his masterwork "The Brilliance of Art Deco", Bay Books, Australia c.1980.
H. 11.0in X W. 7.25in; H. 27.9cm X W. 18.4cm |
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