Tournoi de Lutte de Liege a la Fontaine | Maitre de L’Affiche: Plate #224

This artwork is from Les Maitres de L’Affiche series; miniature versions of outstanding stone lithograph artworks of the most important advertising posters by the finest artists. “Arguably the finest poster on the subject of wrestling ever seen. For a tournament in Liege, Rassenfosse applies a strong graphic approach with the striking image of the wrestlers, who virtually emerge from the poster frame, rendered in deep colours and flat planes to contrast against an impressionist rendering of spectators providing the background. Minguet makes the interesting observation that the interlocked bodies of the wrestlers perfectly parallel the lines of the artist’s monogram!” (Rennert, PAI-XXVI, 512) Part of the famous Belgian “Liege Trio” (Berchmans, Donnay, and Rassenfosse), whose printer Auguste Bernard (1854-1907) played an important role in the ascent of the poster artist in Belgium, Rassenfosse creates clean, effective, well drawn design.