GEORGES DE FEURE (1868-1943) SALON DES CENT. 1894.

25x17 1/2 inches.
Condition A-: minor staining in margins. Framed.
Although born in the Netherlands, de Feure became a prominent figure within the Parisian Art Nouveau scene. He made his mark not only as an illustrator, painter and poster designer, but also as a designer of glass and furniture. In the middle of the 1890s he created a specific female character who began to inhabit all of his posters. Although she was acclaimed by Maindron as "elegant, graceful, slightly melancholic," she also appears solitary and vaguely sinister as if she were scheming. De Feure's image for the Salon des Cent is similar in composition to Eugene Grasset's, both showing a woman contemplating a flower. Yet the mood is completely different, as Grasset's woman is pensive and melancholic, and de Feure's "with the cut flower between her fingers and her fox stole, mark the portrait with a touch of decadent morbidness." (Salon des Cent p. 39). This is the version before letters. DFP-II 345, Maitres 10, Salon des Cent 9, (all var).