At the center of this poster, a conductor—yes, that's him with the baton—raises his hands, signaling that the symphony is about to commence: the second ever AAAA Ball (Aide Amicale Aux Artistes, or "friendly help to artists"). Numerous benefits and balls for artists were held in Paris around this time; this one was an overture to Russian artist émigrés from the Bolshevik Revolution. The artist, Marie Vassilieff, preceded them: she arrived in Montparnasse in 1907, opened her own atelier in 1912, and collected works by Chagall, Modigliani, Picasso, and Léger. She was a nurse for the French Red Cross during World War I, and painted the ornamental panels for the pillars in the dining room of La Coupole. She exhibited puppet portraits in London in 1920 and in Paris in 1923; these were obviously inspiration for this 1924 poster.
Risacher, Paris
literature: PAI-LXXXVIII, 497