?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
ROGER JOURDAIN (DATES UNKNOWN) AÉRODROME DE VICHY. 1909. 42 1/2x29 3/4 inches, 108x76 cm. Wall, Paris. Condition B+: minor restoration in margins; fold through upper left corner; creases in image. 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. However, with the discovery of this rare poster for an aviation meeting in Vichy, an earlier page in French aviation history is uncovered. An aviation event was planned in Vichy for June 1909. However delays kept the event from taking place in June as planned and the weeklong exhibition was rescheduled for the following month, from July 17-25. Despite the delay, the airshow was not a success. It was plagued by bad weather, poorly attended by famous aviators and overshadowed by Bleriot's crossing of the Channel (which occurred simultaneously with the show's last day). The absence of the date of the event suggests that the poster was printed early in June. With the event planned, but the actual date uncertain, the organizers would have added the date when he exact timing was determined. This poster now replaces the better known image from Rheims as the "true ancestor of the aviation poster genre" (Looping the Loop p. 42). Jourdain is a completely unknown artist. However, his theme of an elegant woman in a fancy hat with her back to the viewer, and recognizable silhouettes of real planes in the sky (here a Wright-Ariel biplane and Voisin biplane) became the standard of the genre. Rare.
