{"product_id":"la-francaise-diamant-vion-cycling-1910s","title":"La Française Diamant 1910s | Vion Vintage Cycling Poster","description":"\u003cp\u003eA caricatured figure in a Napoleonic blue military coat, red epaulettes, and red-and-white striped trousers pedals a black diamond-frame bicycle at speed, one arm raised, pipe clamped in teeth. BICYCLETTES LA FRANÇAISE DIAMANT arcs in bold cobalt blue across the upper half of the composition, with the Diamant brand crest set in a cream oval behind the rider. Below, component sponsors are listed with the directness of a race programme: Bowden tourist brake, C.I.C.C.A. lantern, Brown saddle, Brampton chain. Printed by Affiches Gaillard, Paris and Amiens.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDesigned by Raoul Vion around 1910, this poster belongs to the peak years of La Française Diamant's commercial prestige. The company, founded in Paris in 1890 by Pierre-Victor Besse and François Trépier, had built its reputation on race results: Maurice Garin won the 1901 Paris–Brest–Paris and the inaugural 1903 Tour de France on a La Française bicycle, with four of the top five finishers in that first Tour riding the same machine. Vion's Napoleonic figure, with his tricolore stripes and theatrical swagger, reframes the bicycle as an emblem of French national character rather than a piece of machinery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lithographic technique is characteristic of Affiches Gaillard's production at this period: flat, saturated colour with crayon-shaded tonal passages in the background oval, hand-lettered display type arched to follow the oval's curve, and a kinetic figure composition that holds at a distance. The Belle Époque cycling poster was a genre in its own right in French commercial art, and Vion's humorous, caricatural approach sits within a line running from Jules Chéret's theatrical energy to the later sports advertising of Cappiello.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReproduced from archival sources as a fine art print on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper, using pigment-based archival inks. For anyone drawn to early Tour de France history, Belle Époque graphic design, or the French bicycle advertising tradition at its most inventive.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vintage Poster Archives","offers":[{"title":"A4","offer_id":64053790507385,"sku":"VPA-13440-A4","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A3","offer_id":64053790540153,"sku":"VPA-13440-A3","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A2","offer_id":64053790572921,"sku":"VPA-13440-A2","price":34.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"50x70cm","offer_id":64053790605689,"sku":"VPA-13440-50x70cm","price":39.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A1","offer_id":64053790638457,"sku":"VPA-13440-A1","price":44.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"70x100cm","offer_id":64053790671225,"sku":"VPA-13440-70x100cm","price":59.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"A0","offer_id":64053790703993,"sku":"VPA-13440-A0","price":69.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0994\/1139\/4937\/files\/Sport-Cycling-LaFrancaiseDiamant-CommedieCharacter-c1910.jpg?v=1785004556","url":"https:\/\/vintageposterarchives.com\/products\/la-francaise-diamant-vion-cycling-1910s","provider":"Vintage Poster Archives","version":"1.0","type":"link"}