Menu. 1841-1891.

Black ink, grey wash, 39,0 x 27,5 cm (visible), 44,4 x 28,8 cm (total), cardboard, signed, dated.

Mounted on passe-partout (traces of former mount on verso).

Menu for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the commune of Schaerbeek. “Although still heavily influenced by the prevailing academic models, he used the themes to which he will remain faithful throughout his life: garlands of roses, a winged cherub. Nevertheless, the windings of the ears of wheat and the leaf on the menu, the cut-out of the phylactery framing the inscription itself, the breaking of the wheat leaves, the lettering on the menu itself, already have that nervous syncretism that would characterize, albeit more acutely, his work as a poster artist from 1894 onwards, the year in which he began to assimilate the iconographic repertoire of Art Nouveau” (Schoonbroodt, p. 134).
Ref. Schoonbroodt (2003), p. 47 and reprod. p. 52. - Id. (2007), p. 134.
Prov. Artist's studio (ms. note on verso). - Exhibition Halles St-Géry, Brussels, March-June 2003, n° 1 (id., no published catalogue).