This exceptional pastel on cardboard is unique, not only for understanding how banknotes are designed, but also for the history of art in Luxembourg.

They are the first prototype of a national banknote designed by a Luxembourg artist. In 1924, the government entrusted animal painter Auguste Trémont with the task of designing the first cash certificate issued after World War I. Trémont had lived and worked in Paris since 1919. He regularly exhibited in Luxembourg and had won the Grand Duke Adolphe Prize in 1918. In the early 1920s he produced several animal drawings, and his first sculptures date from 1924 – for instance “Chimpanzé sautillant”. In fact, the back of the sketch of this banknote is a pastel representing a panther walking towards the left, its head cut for the needs of the project, to the great disappointment of collectors.

- François Reinert / Cécile Arnould