14.00 USD
Leopold Reutlinger, the Belle Epoque photographer, took thousands of photographs of famous Parisian actresses. These were published in cartes de visite or cabinet card formats, later as postcards, cropped to close up and republished, hand tinted, glittered, sequined, published again, and when every imaginable possibility had been explored, he superimposed these images onto wonderfully fantastic, often surreal backgrounds. The "Artiste with Bird" series is one of our favorites, quite collectible, and we've seen a fair number of them pass through our shop, though not usually in condition this fine.
One of the issues with Reutlinger's "fantaisies," is that although the artiste's name was usually printed on the face of the card in its early incarnations, by the time they evolved into these dramatically imaginative versions, the artiste's name would often be left off the card. This was fine at the time, since their faces were very well known, just as we sometimes see 1970s era posters of unidentified movie stars, like Paul Newman and Robert Redford dressed up as cowboys.
But, of course, their having left off the names on some of these old postcards gives us the opportunity to play the "Name That Face" game, one of our favorite pastimes :).
The beautiful actress in this image is Marguerite Brésil. Born in 1880, she made her first appearance on the stage of the Théatre Gymnase in Paris, in 1899, and within a few years was a tremendously successful star.
This card was published by NPG (Neue Photographische Gesellschaft) of Berlin, and utilized the extremely effective Oranotype method for photo reproduction. Very nice condition on this one, dated on the back 1906.
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!