Artist: Beggarstaff Sir William Nicholson - English (1872-1949) & James Pryde - Scottish (1866-1941)
Title: Corn Flour Kassama
Plate: PL. 232
Original lithograph from "Les Maitres de L'Affiche" series.
Printed by Imprimerie Chaix, Paris, 1900.
Presented in 16 x 20 in. acid free, archival museum mat, with framing labels. Ready to frame. Shipped boxed flat
Certificate of Authenticity.
Maitre Sheet Size: 11 3/8 in x 15 3/4 29 cm x 40 cm
Price: $400.00
Full size sold for $ 17,600 US Poster Auctions International, N.Y. Nov 1992
As with all the Beggarstaff's posters, this masterpiece of graphic design, poignantly points out that, less is more. Using a striking combination of colour and silhouette design in perfect harmony, we have an unforgettable image that is remembered forever as "Kassama."
"The girl in the Kassama Corn Flour poster offers a strong contrast to the winsome, smiling maidens (such as Cheret's) encountered in other advertisements for household goods from this period. Depersonalized and distant, she imparts no information and communicates no advice. The girl is drawn in such a way as to allow hair and basket to print the same colour as the background…to make the girl more eye catching; they placed her against a bright yellow background. By surrounding the figure with a wide expanse of unrelieved yellow, they ensured that it would be isolated from adjacent advertisements" (Beggarstaff p.49)