RENÉ HERMANN-PAUL (1864-1940) AÉRODROME DE CANNES. 1909.
46 1/2x29 1/2 inches, 118x75 cm. Wall, Paris.
Condition B+: repaired tears, restoration, overpainting and airbrushing in margins and image.
Count Charles graaf de Lambert was one of the first people Wilbur Wright taught how to fly and the eighth person in France to receive a flying license from the government. In 1909 he opened a flying school in Cannes, where he operated a Wright biplane that had been constructed by Ariel, the exclusive agents for the Wright Brothers aircraft in France and part of the Compagnie Générale de Navigation Aérienne. This poster offers the elite public vacationing on the French Riviera a chance to experience flying for themselves via classes and excursions, but ultimately it was about the exposure necessary to sell more airplanes. Hermann-Paul, more renowned for his exhibition and theatrical posters, must have been transfixed by the wonder of heavier-than-air flight, as one of his other works is a lithographic portrait of Wilbur Wright. The poster is not only an exceptional andrare early aviation image but also an important historical document from the infancy of the aviation industry. l'Histoire de l'Aviation p. 47, FAI 57, Riviera 458.