In this poster created to announce the Modern Art exhibition at the Charleroi International Exhibition in 1911, COMBAZ chose to depict a female figure sitting in an armchair and contemplating the statuette of a worker. The background of the poster is occupied by factory chimneys belching smoke. This statuette is most likely a reference to the work of the sculptor Constantin Meunier, forty-three of whose compositions were displayed in the main entrance hall of the International Exhibition. Richard Dupierreux, in the Livre d'Or de l'Exposition de Charleroi, considers the work of Combaz and praises this "impressionist poster, of a beautiful frankness and a style full of sobriety and grandeur which does its author the greatest honour" (vol.I, p.419)
In her analysis of the poster, Jane Block mentions the very different working method used by Combaz to produce this composition. Instead of the usual departure from an ink and watercolour draft to compose the poster, the lithograph is printed from an oil original.
The artist seems to have been very satisfied with the result, which he exhibited at the Salon de l'Estampe in 1912.
Jane Block, "Gisbert Combaz", Pandora 1999, p. 73.
