Bicycle Posters

Bicycles were introduced in the 19th century in Europe, and by the early 21st century, more than 1 billion were in existence at a given time. These numbers far exceed the number of cars, both in total and ranked by the number of individual models produced. They are the principal means of transportation in many regions.

The safety bicycle was developed in 1894, and this allowed women the momentous occasion to finally cycle on their own. Advertisers were quick to realise that if women began riding bicycles, then their marketing tactics would have to adapt to increase sales. This proved to be a key moment of transformation: female consumers needed to see themselves in advertising, and the poster art obliged them. For the first time ever, women were given a key element to attaining independence—the bicycle, and all the roving possibilities that entailed—and posters emboldened this new assertion of power. Female cyclists were depicted as goddesses, warriors, angels, enchantresses, and arbiters of their own desires. In posters, the women were in charge.

Posters continued their work of appealing to both female and male consumers. Their depictions of powerful goddesses could inspire female audiences, but they could also be made attractive to men. In this way, advertisers could sell the idea of machines to women and also sell the idea of women using machines to male audiences—a double marketing whammy.

For more information on bicycle posters see part 1, and for earlier examples see parts 1 & 2 also.

This is part 3 of an 11-part series on bicycle posters:

c1880 Cycles Phebus (France)
81 x 119 cm

c1894 Rouxel & Dubois, Paris by Ferdinand Lunel (France)
98.5 x 137.7 cm

Ferdinand Lunel (1857 Paris - 1933) was a French painter, caricaturist, illustrator and poster artist. He was a student of Jean-Léon Gérôme and Caran d’Ache. He collaborated on numerous publications such as the Chat Noir album Le Courrier français. He also became a poster artist in the late 1800s.

1895 Columbia Bicycles by Phil Cardamone (USA)

1895 Cycles Aluminium (France)

1895 New York Ledger Bicycle Number by H.B. Eddy
34.5 x 41.2 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1895 Phebus Bicyclettes & Tricycles (France)

1895 The Road Rights of Wheelmen by E. Nadall (USA)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

c1895 Bearings for Sale Here by Charles Arthur Cox (USA)
45.7 x 33.6 cm

c1895 Bearings, the Cycling Magazine
cover by Charles Arthur Cox (USA)
Smithsonian American Art Museum

Charles Arthur Cox (aka Charles Hudson Cox) was born in Liverpool, England in 1929. He died in Boulder, Colorado in 1901. The Bearings poster is advertising Bearings cycle magazine, as the above example.

c1895 Cycles Andru, Paris by Douzinelle (France)
155 x 112 cm

c1895 Cycles Georges Richard, Le Trèfle a Quatre (France)
149 x 109.5 cm

c1895 Cycles Mégret, Paris (France)
140 x 99 cm

c1895 Le Kosmos Pneu by Louis Oury (France)
87 x 122.8 cm

c1895 Peerless Cycles, Paris by Louis Galice (France)

c1895 Peerless Cycles by Lamy Frères (France)
73.6 x 53.3 cm

c1895 The Crawford American Cycles (USA)
150 x 102 cm

c1894 - c1910 Posters by Walter Thor

Walter Thor (1870 Neusalz - 1929 Munich) was a German painter and illustrator. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, and worked for some time in Paris. He mainly drew commercial posters in the Art Nouveau style with a humourous touch, but also produced some oil paintings. His works include French automotive related posters.

c1894 Griffon by Walter Thor (France)
118 x 78.2 cm

c1904 Griffon Cycles, Motos, Tricars by Walter Thor (France)
76 x 117 cm

1905 Peugeot by Walter Thor (France)
144.8 x 103.5 cm

c1905 Cycles Griffon by Walter Thor (France)

1910 Alcyon by Walter Thor (France)

c1910 The Beeston Humber by Walter Thor (France)
140 x 100 cm

Torpedo by Walter Thor (France)
62.3 x 47.3 cm

1895 - c1898 Cycles Omnium (France):

1895 Cycles Omnium (France)

1898 Cycles Omnium (France)

Cycles Omnium (France)

Omnium Cycles & Automobiles, Paris (France)

Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig (1866 Amsterdam – 1915 Laren), was a Dutch painter and Theosophist. He was one of the first artists who introduced luminism to the Netherlands. Hart was his mother's maiden name. He adopted it in 1884 when all of her brothers had died without issue.

A permanent exhibition of his paintings, drawings and lithographs was established at the Singer Museum in 1981. A street is named after him in the Overtoomse Veld neighborhood of Amsterdam; an area which features streets named after 19th- and 20th-century Dutch painters.

1895 Snel Simplex Sterk by Ferdinand Hart-Nibbrig (Netherlands)
120 x 90 cm

1897 Simplex by Ferdinand Hart Nibbrig (Netherlands)

1895 - 1913 Posters by William Henry Bradley:

Born in Boston, Will Bradley was largely self-taught as an artist. He began working in a printer’s shop at the age of twelve in Ishpeming, Michigan, where his mother had moved in 1874 after the death of his father. This work experience would be important in introducing the young man to the many issues of typesetting, advertisements, and layout that would occupy him in the years to come.

Bradley executed a number of designs to promote The Chap-Book, a short-lived but important publication based in Chicago. His 1894 design for Chap-Book, titled The Twins, has been called the first American Art Nouveau poster; this and other posters for the magazine brought him widespread recognition and popularity. In 1895 Bradley founded the Wayside Press in Springfield, Massachusetts, and published a monthly arts periodical, Bradley: His Book. He remained an active and important member of the graphic arts world for the rest of his long life.

Bradley was well acquainted with the stylistic innovations of his European counterparts. Like many French artists, he borrowed stylistic elements from Japanese prints, working in flat, broad colour planes and cropped forms. He appropriated the whiplash curves of the Art Nouveau movement so dominant in Europe at the turn of the century and was influenced by the work of the English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley.

1895 Springfield Bicycle Club Tournament by William Henry Bradley (USA)
49.3 x 32 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1895 The Springfield Bicycle Club Tournament by William Henry Bradley (USA)

1896 Victor Bicycles by William Henry Bradley (USA)
40.8 x 28.4 cm

1896 Victor Bicycles, Overman Wheel Co., by William Henry Bradley (USA)
68.6 x 103.5 cm

1896 Victor Bicycles, Overman Wheel Co., by William Henry Bradley (USA)
154.3 x 99.7 cm

1913 Victor Bicycles by William Henry Bradley (USA)

c1895 - c1900 Posters by Henri Theriet:

Henri Thiriet (1873 - 1946) was a prolific French poster artist, book illustrator and painter. Although responsible for many memorable posters, almost nothing is known about Thiriet's life and career. He painted in a flamboyant Art Nouveau style, using its characteristic curves and swirls, and a colourful palette to create imagery bearing his clear stamp. Bicycles and their manufacturers are a recurring subject in his work, and the majority of his posters were designed for Omega, Griffiths and Dayton Cycles.