Lot 63: ANDRE GIRARD (1901- ?) PEUGEOT 6 / 12. Circa 1929.

633/4x47 inches. Girard, Levallois. Condition B+: restored losses in bottom left corner; repaired tear in image; minor repaired tears and creases in margins. To advertise the powerful Peugeot 6/12, Girard uses one of his classically simple designs. The car is presented in exaggerated perspective, zooming around the corner of a tri-color road in a style that lends an exciting, dynamic quality to the image. As the car is heading straight at the viewer, Girard is able to make the largest part of the image the company logo on the grill. Girard was obviously a discrete man, as very little is known about his personal life, but he had a very successful artistic career in which he flaunted his unique, deceptively simple, poetic style. His best known work is for Columbia Records, who, in the 1930s, had the finest catalogue of recording artists in France (including Josephine Baker and Mistinguett), for whom Girard designed posters (see Swann Modernist Posters auction #1859, lot 26) and a series of illustrated album sleeves. His other major clients were Duco paints, the department store Aux Dames des France, and Peugeot .