A woman in a tricolour robe rides a racing bicycle across the back of a seagull. Louis Mancin designed the lithograph around 1910 for Alcyon, the French cycle maker founded by Edmond Gentil in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Alcyon's racing team was formed in 1905, and riders on its bicycles went on to win the Tour de France many times. The bird is the brand's emblem: the Alcyon is the Halcyon bird of classical mythology.
On the poster
A laurel-crowned allegorical woman in streaming red, white and blue robes rides an Alcyon racing bicycle on the back of a soaring white seagull, its wings filling the lower half of the sheet. Below her a globe turns against a cobalt-blue ground, and above right a wedge of cadmium yellow opens the sky. The Alcyon name flows in white cursive across the lower blue field, with the phrase "Légère Rapide / sillonne le Monde" (light, swift, traversing the world).
About this print
A digitally restored reproduction, printed on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art paper with pigment inks.

