Gold Rolls Royce/La Rose de Bagatelle

Rene Gruau (1909 – 2004, Italian) “Gold Rolls Royce” aka ‘La Rose de Bagatelle’ (1989) Limited edition color screen print on high quality paper, hand signed and numbered (163/300) by the artist. The sheet measures 35 x 46 inches, and with the matting and frame, the work of art is 45.5 x 56.5 inches. There is also a plate signature in the lower left and two blind stamps in the lower right margin. Note: There is some wear on the frame and pale ink saturation at perimeter of image, otherwise in apparently good condition. Featured is a chauffeur driven gold Rolls Royce apparently transporting a passenger elegantly holding a red rose in a black gloved hand. Gruau often used simple lines and crisp colors of black, red, and yellow to create his images.

This image was used as an advertising poster imprinted with: ‘Automobiles Classiques a Bagatelle; Le 11 Septembre 1988’; an auto rally (concours d’elegance) held by the magazine, “Automobiles Classiques” at the Parc de Bagatelle Rose Garden in Paris.

Gruau also engraved a similar image in 1986 that depicted the yellow Rolls with white tires facing the opposite direction and featuring the face of the fashionably black clad and bejeweled lady in the back seat holding the red rose in her white gloved hand.