ROGER JOURDAIN (DATES UNKNOWN) AÉRODROME DE VICHY. 1909.
42x29 inches, 108x76 cm. Wall, Paris
Condition B+: repaired tears in margins, some affecting image; creases in margins and image.
A very early, rare French aviation poster for an air show that is all but unremembered in history. Europe's first international air show was held in Paris at the Grand Palais in December 1908. The "Grande Semaine d'Aviation" at Rheims in August 1909 is considered to have been "the first great gathering of airmen," as well as the first large-scale aviation meeting held after Bleriot successfully flew across the English Channel, on July 25, 1909. Falling in between these two seminal events, the airshow at Vichy would have made history itself had the show not been plagued by horrendous weather and overshadowed by Bleriot's crossing of the Channel (which occurred simultaneously with the show's last day). Although Jourdain is a completely unknown artist, his theme of an elegant woman in a fancy hat with her back to the viewer, coupled with recognizable silhouettes of actual aircraft in the sky (here, a Wright-Ariel and Voisin biplanes), became the standard of the genre. This poster replaces the better known image from Rheims as the "true ancestor of the aviation poster" (Looping the Loop p. 42). Federation Aeronautique 58.