Highly decorative French pictorial poster map of Europe designed in 1946 by Pierre Hérault & published by Editions Jacques-Petit

Carte D’Europe – Editions Jacques-Petit – Angers – France – 1946

Separately issued colour-printed poster. Narrow margins, seemingly trimmed down, particularly along bottom edge. One or two minor edge nicks. Small area of very light & unobtrusive water staining at lower left corner in blank margin. Slight paper toning around all four sides in blank margins  following line of aperture of former window mount in which poster was previously framed.

Highly decorative and attractive French pictorial map poster of the Continent of Europe, published in 1946 by the provincial publishers, Editions  Jacques-Petit of Angers.

The poster was designed by the well-known French artist & pre-war cartoonist, Pierre Hérault, whose signature appears in the bottom right margin. The map expresses the bright optimism of new post-war beginnings, vivaciously portraying a rich & varied cornucopia of natural, cultural, industrial, agricultural and gastronomic delights that fill every corner of the emergent peacetime Continent. No national borders are marked, nor is there  any reference or visible trace of the destruction and desperation of the previous six long years of European conflict, now seemingly consigned to history.

As a flock of white Arctic swans glide serenely over Russia, the last residual wartime clouds seem to be dispersed by the smiling features of a radiant yellow Sun who warms the scene from on high in the East. The design is completed with a modernist-style scrollwork title cartouche in the upper left which mirrors an equally impressive & decorative modernist-style compass spur in the bottom right. The figure of a young walker with stick & rucksack strides purposefully from right to left across the Scale marked in the lower border, further reinforcing the idea that this new postwar Europe is a place of peaceful natural delights & healthy outdoor recreation. The whole map is embellished with a decorative ropework border frame with stylish curved corners.