A superb pochoir print celebrating the very first meeting especially for seaplanes, held at Monaco in March 1912. The latest race to develop the airplane was for one capable of taking off and landing on water. On 28 March 1910, French aviator Henri Fabre (1882–1984) was the inventor of the first successful seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion. The first aircraft of its type were called hydroplanes. A one of the more successful and respected aircraft manufacturers of the day, the British-Franco brothers Henry (1874-1958) and Maurice Farman (1877-1964) took up the challenge.

The first meet for seaplanes is held in Monaco during March of 1912. There were six events each of which could earn the following points:

a) A departure in calm water from the port of Monaco is worth 1 point;

b) A landing in calm water after a buoy turn is worth 1 point;

c) To rest in rough water coming from the sea is worth 2 points;

d) A start in rough water is worth 3 points;

e) A start from the water and a flight between buoys with landing on the ground, is worth 4 points awarded only once during the competition, while the tests a, b, c and d can be tried several times, though only one result per day is recorded;

f) A take-off from the beach, overflight of the circuit and landing at the port brings 4 points.

The Farman brothers came first and second in the event. The plane illustrated here identified by the three floats, was that which came second. The aircraft was manufactured by the Farman brothers, specifically Maurice Farman. He began racing cars but turned to aircraft in 1908 when he purchased a biplane. He set endurance and speed records the following year and along with his brothers Richard and Henri, began building them commercially. The image is set with the famous Monte Carlo Casino in the background and iconic Tir aux Pigeons with its famous arched tunnel synonymous with the Monaco Grand Prix. The artists viewpoint is from the present Marina.

The artist is Marguerite Millet (1883-1949) who signed as ‘Gamy’, an anagram of Magy, the name she was known by. She was the wife of Ernest Montaut (1878-1909), both of whom were accomplished artists. He is one of the most famous of the early illustrators of motor sports. He was born in Montauban, north of Toulouse, into an era in France where the motor car was beginning to catch the public imagination. Until Montaut, there had been no artist of motor racing. The cars had developed into large machines with big engines and were now being raced town to town on roads rutted by horse and cart. The thrill of these roaring down the road was captured best by Montaut, who began in 1897 to chronicle these races in art. He drew upon the poster art of the period produced by the likes of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) and Jules Cheret (1836-1932). ‘His lighting can be Impressionist, his trees, swaying to the passage of a car, take on Symbolist curves. He is not afraid to colour like a Fauve’ (Tubbs).

He is credited with inventing two artistic methods to illustrate speed amongst others. The use of speed lines to indicate movement and the bending of the foreground of the car help to project the feeling of speed and power. It was however Diego Velasquez who first blurred spinning wheels in a painting entitled ‘The Spinners’ from 1657! Montaut drew directly on stone from which each print was made. Then followed the extensive hand coloured process using several stencils elaborately cut for each image, one for each colour. This is a process known as pochoir, a forerunner of the modern silk-screening process. As demand grew, he took on more staff eventually employing about a dozen to do the colouring alone.

He was not only known for motor cars, but his posters depicted other motorised machines, especially aeroplanes, another recent invention, along with dirigibles and motorboats. As these industries boomed, his posters began to be used to decorate showrooms to encourage sales. Note the reference here to a Renault engine, Bosch magneto, and a Chauvière propeller. Lucien Chauvière (1876-1966) developed the first efficient aerodynamic propellers in Europe.

His earliest posters date from the late 1890s but the glory period is the early 1900s leading up to his tragic death in August 1909 from appendicitis. His wife continued the business. Indeed, dated 1909, this is one of her earliest productions just weeks after her husband’s death, and even less time after the flight itself. The Farman Aviation Works were in operation from 1908 until 1936 when France decided to nationalize its aircraft industry. It renamed the firm the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Centre (SNCAC). Automobile Quarterly (Summer 1962) ‘Montaut & Atelier’ pp. 196-213; Clendinin, Dorothy (1976) ‘Lively Legacy. The first automotive prints for the first automotive enthusiasts’ in ‘Road & Track’ pp. 70-73; Helck, Peter (1977) ‘Car Classics’; ‘Collection de L’Atelier Montaut-Mabileau’ (1992) Musee de La Colline de L’Automobile; Tubbs, Douglas B. (1978) ‘Art and the Automobile’.