?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
HENRI BEHEL (DATES UNKNOWN) GEORGES RICHARD. Circa 1900. 55 x 39 inches. L. Galland. Condition A-; repaired tears and restorations in margins. Georges Richard was an early pioneer in the automotive industry. Like many others, he began by manufacturing bicycles. He was also a pioneer in the field of advertising and relied heavily on posters to help sell his product, and to do so he employed some of the best artists of the era including Pal, Grasset, H. Gray and others. Around 1900 he commissioned a poster from Henri Behel, an artist who has no other known posters to his name. The poster exists in two versions, and marks a turning point in Richard's commercial strategy. The two posters have the same image, but different text. This copy, which is the first of the two, reads "Cycles et Automobiles," the latter version reads "Automobiles et Cycles," and indicates that the company was turning away from bicycles and placing cars at the forefront of the marketing effort. And, indeed, in 1902, Richard partnered with the engineer Henri Brasier, and the two began producing award-winning cars under the brand name Richard-Brasier. This image is a classic turn-of-the-century rendition of a woman being chauffeured through the countryside. An indication of the speed they are travelling and the distance they are covering is conveyed through her holding down her hat and the distant town that they have just sped through. The four leaf clover was the emblem of the Georges Richard Company. Automobile 11.
