Meditation on the Map of Tenderness — Fabiano

A languid interior in which a fashionable Parisienne contemplates the seventeenth-century allegory of love revived for the salons of 1917.

Original French title: Méditation sur la Carte du Tendre. Drawn by Fabien Fabiano. Published in La Vie Parisienne, Paris, 1917.

The Carte du Tendre — a précieuse seventeenth-century map of the geography of love — was a favourite reference for inter-war illustrators looking to dignify the magazine's flirtations with a literary pedigree. Fabiano's elegant linework and high-style boudoir furnish the scene with a knowing, retrospective wit.

Chromolithograph. Sheet size approximately 37.9 × 28.9 cm. Excellent.