Confetti

1894

57 X 45 cm.

Brush, spatter and crayon lithograph. Printed in three colors. Text by the artist Confetti / Manufactured / by / J & E Bella, / 113 Charing Cross Rd. / London./ WC. Artist's monogram lower right, printer's name also by the artist lower right. Key stone printed in dark olive-green, color stones in yellow and brown-red. Printed by Bella & de Malherbe, London & Paris. Commissioned by J. & E. Bella, London.

This small poster, made for the English paper manufacturers J. and E. Bella, was probably created in the late autumn of 1894; it was based on a colored study on canvas, also dated 1894, Dortu P.517 (Buhrle Collection, Zurich). The Bella brothers organized poster exhibitions at the Royal Aquarium, London, in 1894 and 1896, to which they invited Lautrec. Certainly, his participation in the first of these shows at the end of October 1894 (Goldschmidt-Schimmel No, 184) reviewed by Jules Roques in the Courrier Francais on 11 November 1894, would explain why the firm gave the commission for their own advertisement, not to an English artist, but to the experienced poster designed from the Continent (see Edward Bella, ‘Les Affiches Etrangeres, l'Affiche Anglaise, H. de Toulouse-Lautrec Confettis', in L Plume, 155, 1October 1895).

The text, which is designed as part of the drawing, forms an integral element of the composition; it fits into the overall character of the design to create an effective advertisement without impinging on the drawing in any way.

Wittrock P13, Adriani 101, Delteil 352, Adhemar 9, Bodelsen p. 12