HENRI THIRIET (DATES UNKNOWN) STEARNS CYCLES (YELLOW FELLOW). Circa 1900. 60 1/2x87 3/4 inches. Courmont Freres, Paris. Condition A-: minor restored losses in bottom and left marins; crease in image. Two sheets. Although he created more than half a dozen stunning posters, almost no biographical information exists on Thiriet. His was arguably the most extravagant French Art Nouveau style. Not only did he employ the trademark curves and waves of Art Nouveau (albeit ramped up to his own level), but he also used a flashy palette of colors to create his symbolic and allegorical scenes and images. He seems to have been particularly inspired by bicycles (or perhaps best paid by their manufacturers), as the majority of his works were for Omega, Griffith and Dayton Cycles. This previously unrecorded, two-sheet poster for the American bicycle company Stearns is as spectacular a design as he ever created. Not only notable for its flamboyant allegory, in which a winged victory presents the winner of a bicycle race with a tray loaded with money, but for the yellow shirt worn by the cyclist: One of the first representations of the Tour de France's now iconic yellow jersey!
