Unfolding Pictures: The Barbier Fan, 1911

Hand Fan
Georges Barbier, 1911
The Victoria & Albert Museum

The celebrated Georges Barbier was the foremost fashion illustrator in early Twentieth Century Paris. Many yearned to work with him, and he ended up collaborating with some of the most avant garde designers of the era: Paul Poiret and Madame Paquin.

The female figure painted on this paper and silk-leaf fan is adorned with a headdress identical to one famously designed by Madame Paquin. With its simple bone sticks, the style of the fan is a sign of things to come with the styles of the 1920s and the Art Deco.