HENRI GABRIEL IBELS (1867-1936) SALON DES CENT. 1894.

27 1/2x19 1/2 inches. Eugene Verneau, Paris.
Condition B+: vertical and horizontal folds. Matted and Framed.
La Plume had recognized and lauded Ibels's talent in their January 15, 1893 issue. A year later they bestowed a further honor on him by commissioning him to design the poster for the first Salon des Cent. For his poster he employed a palette of five colors, softly gradated between green and brown. The image is composed of many of his favorite characters: a ballet dancer, a harlequin and a Pierrot who is actually painting a picture of the ballerina. As with all of Ibels's work, it is a high-standard drawing of intense poetical elegance. "Remarkable in more than one way, this poster presents a resolutely modern composition and a framing which reveal the position of the ballerina in a depthless, indefinite space, as well as the perfect integration of the text to the image" (Salon des Cent p. 55). DFP II 472, Reims 754, Salon des Cent 22.