16.00 USD
Lovely Reutlinger image of French stage performer Mlle. Emelin. We haven't yet found any history on this performer, but will continue looking. This is a very nice example of the "classical" costume, popular in the Belle Epoque era, and of the sort often used in works that fall under the category of Art Nouveau.
Those of you familiar with Leopold Reutlinger's work may recognize Mlle. Emelin as one of the artistes whose images Monsieur Reutlinger used in a particularly magical series of women flying through the air on butterflies. The fourth image in this listing shows Mlle. Emelin as she appeared in that series. We are NOT selling that butterfly postcard (it's not even in our posession), but we thought you might enjoy seeing it.
Our postcard shows Mlle. Emelin posed in a very sheer "Grecian" style costume, before a trompe l'oeil, and bearing a palm frond. It is probably one of a series of six images. As you can see, in the later butterfly image, Reutlinger cut out an image of Mlle. Emelin from this earlier series, and overlaid it onto a fancifully colored image of a butterfly.
Leopold Reutlinger was well known for this kind of thing, and made wonderful use of earlier theatrical portraits. Given that some performers made small fortunes off of postcard sales (dancer Cleo de Merode, for example, kept a very close control over her postcard images and sales), we wonder if the performers earned royalties off of later, "fantastically altered" images. If you know, please do tell us!
Very nice, unposted condition.
Please examine our high res scans for detail.
Postage is for first class shipping in a secure photo mailer, and we happily combine shipping on all paper goods. If you purchase two cards, we will refund the postage on the second card, and when you purchase three or more cards from us at the same time, your shipping will be entirely free, except for international orders which, because of sudden increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more.
And please come visit our blog at:
redpoulaine.blogspot.com
where we post biographical and historical tidbits, images of cards and photographs for sale, some already sold but remembered fondly, related images of historical interest and sometimes even images of items that have not yet arrived in the shop, but that are expected to arrive soon, as well as coupon codes, links to other related sites, and more!