Cycle Michael

Lautrec was an enthusiastic fan of sporting events, emphasizing the late 19th-century French bicycling fervor in two posters (see 2015.278). Both were meant to advertise a new bicycle part to a ready audience of some half-million riders. However, the artist’s subtle preliminary version seen here was rejected, and the lithograph was never produced in more than one color. Instead Lautrec personally funded an edition of 200 monochrome impressions.