Saturday, November 26, 2011

Decadent Deco

Another view of women from 1915, by my favorite decadent Deco artist — Georges Barbier. The elegant woman on the right appears to have been spanked recently, or am I paying too much attention here?

Georges Barbier — La Vie Parisienne magazine — 1915

Can someone, knowledgeable in French, translate the border heading? Google translator is not making sense of it.

Update: I appreciate hearing from all you folks with translations. Coming straight from Jacques in France, this seems to be the final word:

The sentence in Georges Barbier's illustration is, in french:
"il est mieux de deviner que de voir",
which could be translated as :
"Guessing is better than seeing"
or as
" It is better to guess than to see".
—Your choice.—

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6 comments:

  1. KenNovember 26, 2011 at 6:39 PM

    Translates as "Is it better to guess or to see?" Presumably - clothed or naked, which is better?

    Ken

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  2. KenNovember 26, 2011 at 6:44 PM

    Strictly "Is it better to guess than to see.?"

    Ken (again)

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  3. Daniel [oeconomist.com]November 26, 2011 at 6:56 PM

    “C'est Mieux de deviner que de voir.” → “It is better to guess than to see.”

    Which is to say that the imagined is better than the realized, and in particular a partially covered women is more attractive than one simply naked.

    (I'm not at all sure that I agree on that particular.)

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  4. Thomas Haller BuchananNovember 26, 2011 at 9:04 PM

    Thank you gentlemen.

    In my mind, clothed or naked, women are to be adored (but I see your point Daniel).

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  5. DuckbuttNovember 27, 2011 at 4:15 AM

    "It is better to imagine than to see," would be my take. And there's a slight blush of shyness on her cheeks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. SimNovember 28, 2011 at 9:24 AM

    Both translations are good.
    Sentence often used in french to say that erotism is better than nudity...

    ReplyDelete