Original Maitres De L'Affiche - Pl 32 The July Century

This is an original colour lithographic plate from Les Maîtres de l'Affiche — one of the most celebrated art publications of the Belle Époque, conceived by Jules Chéret and printed at the Imprimerie Chaix in Paris between 1895 and 1900. Created for a subscriber audience, the series reproduced the most influential posters of the era in a small collector's format, issued monthly in sets of four. Plate 32 presents the poster designed by the American artist Charles Herbert Woodbury for The July Century, the summer issue of the celebrated New York monthly.

Charles Herbert Woodbury (1864–1940) was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, and trained as a mechanical engineer at MIT before turning entirely to painting. He studied briefly at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1891, travelled to Holland to study the modern Dutch painters, and went on to become one of the most sought-after art teachers of his generation, founding a celebrated summer school in the Maine fishing village of Ogunquit. His early work is associated with the group later known as the Lynn Beach Painters, and he counted John Singer Sargent, J. Alden Weir and Childe Hassam among his friends and contemporaries.

The design reflects the influence of Japanese prints: the clarity of the composition and the restraint of its means set it apart from the busier posters of its day, and make it one of the quietest and most elegant images in the series. Its inclusion in Chéret's publication reflects how seriously the American poster was taken in Paris by the mid-1890s.

This example is in excellent condition — grade A — and is presented unframed, ready for the wall it deserves.

A Belle Époque collector's piece — Woodbury's Japanese-inspired simplicity for The Century, in the series that made poster art collectable on both sides of the Atlantic.