Lot 84: Tarquin Le Superbe/Pathe. 1911.

Tarquin Le Superbe/Pathe. 1911.Lorant-Heilbronn began his career as a posterist for various Paris theaters and music halls. When films came along, he added duties as set designer and assistant director to his graphic responsibilities. Here, he creates a violently and vibrantly evocative historical scene of epic proportions to promote the release of Tarquin le Superbe by Film d'Arte Italiana, a subsidiary of Pathe. The artist opens a portico into the violent demise of Servius Tillius, the King of Rome assisinated by his power-hungry son-in-law, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and then run over repeatedly by a chariot with Lucius's wife at the reins after he was dead. Tarquinius was the last of the seven legendary kings of Rome.Charles Pathe (1863-1957) was the first international cinema mogul. After a brief period of globe-trotting,he returned to France broke in 1894, just in time to see a demonstration of Edison's Kinetescope. Intrigued, he raised enough money to rent one and for the first time in his life realized a profit. He then joined-up with a mechanically-minded friend and they devised their own projector and camera equipment. In 1896, he persuaded his three brothers to join him in the founding of Pathe Freres. At first they made only the equipment, but in 1898 they expanded into film production. Soon, the Pathe insignia of the Gallic rooster became known and instantly recognizable throughout Europe. From their inception as a moviemaking entity through World War I, Pathe produced by far more film footage than all other European and American producers combined.
VINCENT LORANT-HEILBRONN (1874-?)

45 3/4 x 63 in./116 x 160 cm

1911.0

B/ Slight tears at folds.