La Lettre Attendue

Several artists contributed to this exceptional Art Deco magazine from fashion director Umberto Brunelleschi entitled La Guirlande album mensuel d’art et littérature Sous la direction littéraire de … Jean Hermanovits. Sous la direction artistique de … Brunelleschi. Jean Saude did the pochoir coloring for the fashion lithographs. The work was limited to 800 sets and was published between 1919 and 1921 in Paris.

The best Art Deco talent of the period contributed to the work including the artists Umberto Brunelleschi, George Barbier, Bonnette, Blanche, Taquoy, and others. The two most important contributors to the artistic side of the publication are probably the artistic director Umberto Brunelleschi, and George Barbier. Both were well-established when the present work was published: the former had been working in Paris since 1900 on illustration and stage design (most notable with Puccini on his ‘Turandot’), the latter found fame slightly later with an exhibition in 1911, and also worked in various fields: the theatre, jewellery, glass and wallpaper design, as well as writing essays and articles for the prestigious Gazette du Bon Ton. An examination of their work in La Guirlande shows that both artists were at their artistic peak during the lamentably short period when this quintessential Art Deco magazine was being published.