These two exceptional pastels on cardboard are 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.

The banknote is the first to display a portrait of a member of the reigning Grand Ducal family. The portrait needed a few changes. Tremont had drawn the face of Grand Duchess Charlotte from the front, looking at the spectator. On the final version of the banknote, Charlotte is represented in three-quarters profile, her head turned slightly to the right. The original composition for the back of the note was generally respected. The peasant woman and a steel worker represent the two economic pillars of the country; they continued to be widely used in the iconography of Luxembourg banknotes.

One million copies of this banknote – rare nowadays – were printed in Brussels; by 1929 it had already been removed from circulation.