EUGENE GRASSET (1841-1917) THE JANUARY CENTURY / THE BEST LIFE OF NAPOLEON. 1895.

28 1/8x19 1/2 inches. The Century Co.
Condition B+: restoration along vertical and horizontal folds; repaired tears in margins; minor staining.
With the poster craze in America gaining momentum at the end of the 19th century, publishers travelled to Europe to recruit famous French posterists to ply their craft in the New World. Grasset's first American commission in 1882 was for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and in 1892 Theodore Child, Harper's representative in Paris, asked him to design the cover for the Christmas issue. This was his first large, color illustration for a U.S. publication. In 1894 Grasset was recruited by The Century magazine to help advertise their serialized biography of Napoleon. The result, known as both "The Wooly Horse" and "The Sun of Austerlitz" was truly a monumental work. Writing for The Poster magazine in November 1900, Scotson-Clark declared that "this was the best poster Grasset ever did." The "Wooly Horse" became so famous it was even reproduced in stained glass by Tiffany! It is one of three posters Grasset produced for The Century featuring Napoleon. Etrangères, p. 143, Grasset, p. 208, Margolin p. 35, Arwas 17, Reims 679, DFP II 413, Maitres pl. 126 (var), Word & Image p. 20, Keay p. 6 (var).