?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
CHARLES-LÉONCE BROSSÉ (1871-1945)
MEETING D'AVIATION / NICE. 1910.
42x30 1/4 inches, 106 1/2x76 3/4 cm. [Affiches Photographiques Robaudy, Cannes.] Condition B+: small replaced losses, repaired tears and abrasions in margins; minor creases and restoration along vertical and horizontal folds; small replaced losses at edges; hand-signed by the artist above printed signature.
In the early years of aviation (the Wright Brothers took their first flight in 1903), aviation exhibitions and competitions were all the rage. "Throughout 1910, aviation posters proliferated like flowers in spring" (Looping the Loop p. 54). This extraordinary image, advertising a 15-day extravaganza in the south of France, is one of the most fanciful, engaging and memorable of all the early aviation posters. Its brilliance derives from the ingenious, deceptively-simple idea of putting the viewer higher up than the plane, looking down toward the ground. While the image appears to be half reality and half fantasy, it's most likely closer to reality than previously thought. The improbable-looking plane is most likely an Esnault-Pelterie R.E.P. 1, which was designed with wheels at the end of both wings. The poster was printed by Robaudy, a pioneer in the field of applying photographic techniques to the printing process. Looping the Loop, cover & 34, L'Histoire de l'Aviation p. 6, Affiches Azur, 315, Perier p. 15.
