Gouache on cardboard
Image size: 5 1/2 x 9 1/4 inches (14 x 24 cm)
£950
Original poster artwork
This is an original artwork for a LMS poster. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) was a British railway company that was formed in 1923 and operated until 1948. At the time it was the world’s largest transport organisation, by 1938 it operated 6,870 miles of railway serving routes in England, Norther Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Cassandre’s posters celebrate the new modes of luxury transport that characterise the prosperous lifestyle of his day.
The Artist
Adolphe Mouron Cassandre was one of the great poster designers of the 20th century. His Art Deco posters have become iconic images that characterize the style.
Cassandre was one of the great poster designers of the 20th century. His real name was Adolphe Mouron. Born in the Ukraine in 1901, his family were forced to migrate to Paris due to the hostile political climate. He originally studied painting at the Écoles des Beaux Arts in Paris but, at the age of 22, he started designing posters under the name Cassandre.
Cassandre’s style is typically Art Deco and his posters have become iconic images of that period (mid 1920’s to mid 1930’s). The name, Art Deco, was coined retrospectively in the 1960’s as an abbreviation for the ‘Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes’, a 1925 design exhibition in Paris that celebrated modern living.