L'OISEAU BLEU. 1929.

391/4x241/4 inches. L. Danel, Lille. Condition A-: repaired tears in top margin; unobtrusive vertical and horizontal folds. For L'Oiseau Bleu, a Pullman overnight car on the Chemins de Fer du Nord, Cassandre creates a more metaphorical image than usual; not so much rendering an image of the mode of transportation, but, rather, suggesting it. That the poster is advertising a train is expressed by the signal and telegraph wires visible in the center of the image. These are obscured by the smoke from a speeding "engine," depicted here as the literal translation of the train's name, "The Blue Bird." Several artistic changes distinguish this image from Cassandre's other railway posters; here he doesn't use his airbrush and the typography uses more fonts than he customarily employed. This copy bears the ink stamp of the Chemins de fer du Nord. Mouron / Cassandre pl. 18, Suntory 56, p. 80, Reina Sophia p. 164.