Hand-coloured, plate-signed pochoir from Falbalas & Fanfreluches: "The New Trend for Shawls", 1923. Barbier's brilliant juxtaposition of saturated orange and electric azure-gem blue provide us with the arresting magic that an old concept, re-worked in contemporary haute-couture, can bring. This delighted Barbier, this new way of re-seeing, of reconfiguring the familiar, which was of course, his whole artistic "raison d'etre". Once again the Barbier male is the dutiful attendant, discretely and patiently off to the side, an adjunct to the mutable world of female beauty and invention! +++++++
This famous illustrated almanac series was produced from 1922 to 1926 only and depicted high-society life in Paris - the fashion, social and artistic capital of the early inter-war years. Each issue contained a small diary and notation section, an introduction by one of the leading social/cultural doyens of the day, a decorative cover and twelve fashion plates (one for each month of the year), hand-coloured via stencil and watercolour/gouache. Further Ref.: "Art Deco Costumes By George Barbier" (Introduction by Madeleine Ginsburg, Curator, V&A Museum, London). +++++++ Approx.image size: h. 6.25in X w. 4.125in; h. 15.9cm X w. 10.5cm; Overall: h. 9.75in X w. 6.375in; h. 24.8cm X w. 16.2cm |