French Poster by Les Maîtres De L’Affiche Plate 135 Circa 1898 Absinthe Mugnier

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This is plate 135 from "Les Maitres De L’Affiche" (The Masters of the Poster) series featuring Lucien Lefevre's poster for … Read more This is plate 135 from "Les Maitres De L’Affiche" (The Masters of the Poster) series featuring Lucien Lefevre's poster for Absinthe Mungier with a French legionnaire happily raising a bottle of Absinthe. Since the mid-19th century, absinthe was dispensed to the legionnaires fighting in Algeria as a preventative measure against fever and to kill bacteria in water. Here, it is unclear if our legionnaire benefits from absinthe's health benefits or the alcoholic effects of "la fee verte" (the green fairy). Lefevre, influenced by Cheret while working in his atelier at the printing company of Chaix, acquired a reputation in his own right as a posterist.
Lefevre poster reading "Mugnier absinthe; for sale everywhere; only manufacturer, Fredric Mugnier, Dijon, Geneva."
Artist: Lucien Lefevre
Title: Absinthe Mugnier
Plate 135 original stone lithograph (c.1898)
The "Maitres de l'Affiche" were issued as separate numbered sheets, referred to as "plates" (PL). They were numbered sequentially from "PL.1" to "PL.240"
The printer's name, "Imprimerie Chaix," is in the margin at the bottom left-hand corner.
In the margin at the bottom right-hand corner of each sheet is a blind embossed stamp from a Cheret design. See less