ABSTRACT
Publicity posters and advertisements aimed at selling bicycles have been published since the 1870s. There is little evidence surviving as to how the cycle agencies commissioned the poster artists. In Paris in the decade 1890–1900 there was a craze amongst artists and art lovers for the posters that adorned the streets of the city during the Belle Epoque. The study of the mass-produced works naturally requires a certain level of interest in social history, but also in the history of the makers who used symbols and emblems to identify their various makes by highlighting the unique characteristics of their products for cyclists. One of the greatest merits of these posters, inspired by the psychology of the masses and the art of selling, is that they are high-level, mainstream art, accessible on the street. At a time when television did not exist as a major medium, the cycle poster also tells us about the changing world and patterns of consumption.
