Femme aux iris – Paul Berthon, 1899

“Femme aux iris” (also issued with text as “Société des amis des arts de la Manche”), colour lithograph from 1899, designed by Paul Berthon. Size : 90 x 65.5 cm.

Despite his short life, Paul Berthon (1872–1908) ranks among the most important innovators of French poster design around 1900 and is regarded as a central figure of the Art Nouveau movement. As a pupil and collaborator of Eugène Grasset, Berthon developed a highly personal visual language in which elegant contour lines, soft colours, and a carefully balanced decorative composition play a central role.

This lithograph depicts a dreamlike, idealised female figure set within a luxuriant field of blooming irises. The woman appears absorbed in an inner world, her eyes closed and her pose calm and restrained. Her long, flowing hair merges almost seamlessly with the surrounding landscape, suggesting a close unity between figure and nature. The irises—flowers frequently associated within late-nineteenth-century Symbolism with transience, longing, and mystery—reinforce the poetic and contemplative character of the image.

This impression was issued as a so-called panneau décoratif: a textless work not tied to a specific message, intended purely as wall decoration. Other impressions of the same design were issued with text and used as a promotional poster for the Société des amis des arts de la Manche.

Approximately two thirds of Berthon’s graphic oeuvre consists of such panneaux décoratifs. With these works he introduced a new genre: affordable yet aesthetically refined interior prints which, as early forerunners of the modern art poster, played an important role in disseminating Art Nouveau aesthetics in everyday life.

Price: Euro 750,-