Menton 1923
Buy this print on Etsy →There is a warmth to Roger Broders's Menton of 1923 that seems to rise straight off the page. Created for the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway, the poster celebrates the easternmost jewel of the French Riviera, the sun-favoured town where France meets Italy and the Mediterranean is at its gentlest.
Menton earned its reputation honestly. Nestled at the coast's eastern edge, it emerged as a fashionable destination in the early 1900s thanks to the mildest climate anywhere along the shore, a therapeutic haven that drew visitors to its celebrated spas and sanatoria in search of rest and renewal. Broders channels that restorative promise into colour and light, conjuring a place where the air is soft, the sea is bright and time seems to slow into something like a cure. Sheltered lemon groves and palm-lined promenades made the town a byword for gentle recovery, and the poster carries that reputation in every sunlit stroke.
Roger Broders (1883-1953) was a leading French Art Deco poster designer whose luminous railway images beckoned a generation toward the Alps, the Jura and the sun-drenched Riviera. He worked in flat, saturated planes of colour and pared his scenes down to their essentials, a discipline that gave his posters their instant readability and enduring appeal. Among collectors of vintage travel art, his name remains one of the most prized of the golden age of rail.
Art Deco, the style behind the poster, took shape in 1920s France as a celebration of speed, luxury and machine-age geometry. Designers simplified sweeping landscapes into bold, stylised colour, giving travel advertising its unmistakable air of streamlined modern glamour. Broders's Menton wears that language lightly, its confident forms carrying all the optimism of the era.
Enlarged on a wall, the image becomes a genuine focal point, its Riviera glow bringing warmth to a room the way a south-facing window does. It holds its own above a sofa, bed or console, anchors a gallery wall of coastal and travel prints, and suits a living room, hallway, dining room, sunroom, home bar or studio, lending any space a note of Mediterranean ease and vintage character.
Each print is produced to order on premium 189 gsm museum-grade archival matte paper with fade-resistant pigment inks, for rich, gallery-quality colour and crisp, faithful detail. Choose your size from the drop-down menu: 8x12, 12x18, 16x24, 20x30 or 24x36 inches. Orders are carefully packaged and shipped rolled in a sturdy tube, or flat for the smallest size; a frame is not included, leaving the choice of framing to you.
This is a faithful fine-art reproduction of the original stone lithograph, colour-matched and printed to archival standards rather than a flat mass-market copy. It preserves the texture and character of the antique poster while arriving crisp, clean and ready to frame.
It makes a memorable gift for anyone who loves vintage travel posters, the French Riviera and Art Deco design, and a lasting way to bring a piece of Côte d'Azur sunshine into a home, studio or workplace.
