FERNAND LE QUESNE | Allégorie de la publicité

Private collection, London (sale: Sotheby's, London, 3 June 2009, lot 146)

Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Le Quesne's humorous take on the burgeoning consumerism of the belle époque is set in a bustling Place de la Concorde. The allegorical figure of Advertising can hardly be kept on the ground by the straining balloons promoting everything from department stores like the Bon Marché, Pygmalion and the Samaritaine, to the latest theatre performances and museum shows. Strewn on the ground are a medley of European and American newspaper titles, the vehicles par excellence for advertising, while in the background the plinth of the statue is pasted with poster bills, and wheeled as well as human billboards vie for attention in the square.