Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864-1901
The Simpson Chain
INV-1806
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
French, 1864-19011896
The Simpson Chain
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French, 1864-1901 →printlithograph
Date
1896
Medium
Color brush and spatter lithograph (poster) on tan wove paper with lettering by another hand
Dimensions
Image: 81.5 × 119 cm (32 1/8 × 46 7/8 in.); Sheet, sight: 85.2 × 123 cm (33 9/16 × 48 7/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of the Gecht Family
This poster represents Lautrec’s final design for an advertisement for a bicycle lever chain recently invented by the London manufacturer W. S. Simpson. Competitive cyclist Constant Huret rides a bicycle equipped with the device, speeding on to victory with its help. This poster sports a much more dynamic composition than the artist’s previous attempt, as well as a more realistic depiction of bicycles, despite the four- and five-seaters in the background.
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