As both a superior designer and a man about town, Colin was often asked to make posters for various balls and fêtes over a thirty-year period. Here, it’s for a highly prestigious charity ball for the benefit of an actors’ retirement home, attended even by then-French president, Albert Lebrun. Yet the affair stirred up a cauldron of controversy in the press, as it marked a major break in the tradition of the Comédie Française, which hitherto had never allowed a ball on its premises. Colin acknowledges the host with the silhouette of a bust of Molière (by Houdon) used for the background in his design.
France Affiches, Paris
literature: Colin, 44; Colin/Affichiste, 120; PAI-XLII, 245