CHEMIN DU FER NORD. 1929.

391/4x241/2 inches. Danel, Lille. Condition A-: repaired tears, creases and minor restoration in margins. When he first began working for the Chemins de fer du Nord Cassandre designed two posters ( l'Etoile du Nord and the Nord Express ). At the same time he also designed the cover of the company's magazine, in which he used a compass design very similar to this poster (see Swann Modernist Poster Auction #1935 lot 37). In 1929, in this general advertising poster for the company, he mixes the best elements of those posters (the perspective formed by the converging rails and telegraph wire) with the compass (here in full size, dancing like the star in l'Etoile du Nord ). The graphic rendering of the needle and its shadow are extremely elaborate, and use sophisticated airbrush work. Not only do the blue sky and smattering of clouds help the needle to stand out, but the large black "N" of the compass reinforces the "Nord" in the poster's title. Mouron / Cassandre pl. 16, Suntory 52, p. 76, Reina Sophia p. 167.