{"product_id":"cappiello-grand-bal-masque-opera-1921","title":"Cappiello Grand Bal Masqué 1921 | Vintage Theatre Poster","description":"\u003cp\u003eA Harlequin and a Pierrot leap in arrested motion against a saturated yellow ground, both half-masked, arms outstretched into the swirling paper streamers that fill every corner of the composition. The bold diamond-pattern costume of the Harlequin, rendered in deep red and charcoal, presses against the flowing white of the Pierrot suit. It is a single arrested moment from the Paris Opera's Grand Bal Masqué, Mi-Carême 1921, held on Thursday 3 March.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLeonetto Cappiello designed this lithograph in 1921 for the Théâtre National de l'Opéra, printed by Maison Devambez, Paris. The commission came at the opening of Cappiello's exclusive fifteen-year contract with Devambez, a partnership that produced some of the most assured French poster work of the interwar years. Cappiello, born in Livorno in 1875 and based in Paris from 1898, had by 1921 displaced the Art Nouveau generation of Chéret and Mucha as the defining voice of French commercial lithography.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe design is notable for its departure from Cappiello's characteristic dark-ground work. The composition opens to uncut yellow, the carnival figures floating free against a ground that is itself saturated with motion. The Bibliothèque nationale de France holds a copy in its Estampes et photographie collection, confirming the poster's place in the documented record of French theatrical ephemera. Poster Auctions International offered an original example in March 2025, estimated at $6,000–8,000.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReproduced from a restored archival source as an archival print on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper. The design resonates with collectors of Cappiello's catalogue, with those drawn to the French theatrical poster tradition, and with anyone who wants to put some of the energy of a 1921 Paris carnival on a wall.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vintage Poster Archives","offers":[{"title":"A4","offer_id":63909620744569,"sku":"VPA-11726-A4","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A3","offer_id":63909620777337,"sku":"VPA-11726-A3","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A2","offer_id":63909620810105,"sku":"VPA-11726-A2","price":34.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"50x70cm","offer_id":63909620842873,"sku":"VPA-11726-50x70cm","price":39.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A1","offer_id":63909620875641,"sku":"VPA-11726-A1","price":44.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"70x100cm","offer_id":63909620908409,"sku":"VPA-11726-70x100cm","price":59.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A0","offer_id":63909620941177,"sku":"VPA-11726-A0","price":69.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0994\/1139\/4937\/files\/Music-OperaParis-GrandBalMasque-HarlequinCouple-1921.jpg?v=1783449308","url":"https:\/\/vintageposterarchives.com\/products\/cappiello-grand-bal-masque-opera-1921","provider":"Vintage Poster Archives","version":"1.0","type":"link"}