VICTOR CRETEN (1878-1966)
7
●
RED STAR LINE / ANVERS - NEW YORK. Circa 1900.
30
1
/
4
x23
1
/
4
inches, 76
3
/
4
x59 cm. J. Goffin Fils, Brussels.
Condition B+ / B: repaired tears, creases and abrasions in margins and along sharp vertical and horizontal
folds; skinning in left margin; fading in upper left corner; stains in image.
Creten studied architecture at the Academie Royale des Beaux Arts in Brussels and most of his career
was spent designing buildings (factories, apartments, country homes and civic buildings) and exhibition
pavilions. This elegant, Art Nouveau poster focuses on the on-board idyll, with a passenger languidly
enjoying an afternoon on deck. In the distance the
Westernland
is steaming across the ocean, suggesting
that our passenger is currently on the deck of the
Noordland
, the sister ship who sailed same Antwerp to
New York crossing. Creten designed fewer than a dozen posters. One cannot help but make a mental
comparison to Toulouse-Lautrec’s 1896 image for the Salon des Cent, which similarly features a woman
reclining on a wooden deck chair as a liner passes by in the distance. Belle Epoque 47 (var), Weallans
p. 15.
[2,000/3,000]