Object Details
- Sponsor
- Air France, 1933--
- Artist
- Lucien Boucher, 1889-1971
- Physical Description
- Multicolor illustrated print by Lucien Boucher printed by Perceval advertising Air France service to Europe, Africa, South America, the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia. A map of the world in purple and red depicts route maps with white lines and dots. Small drawings throughout represent destinations. An elaborate compass is at upper left; partial text at lower right, "AIR FRANCE" in white serif text and "RÉSEAU AÉRIEN MONDIAL" in gold and black serif text are enclosed within a decorative rectangle. A gold border surrounds the entire poster illustration.
- Summary
- Fly Now: The National Air and Space Museum Poster Collection
- Throughout their history, posters have been a significant means of mass communication, often with striking visual effect. Wendy Wick Reaves, the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery Curator of Prints and Drawings, comments that "sometimes a pictorial poster is a decorative masterpiece-something I can't walk by without a jolt of aesthetic pleasure. Another might strike me as extremely clever advertising … But collectively, these 'pictures of persuasion,' as we might call them, offer a wealth of art, history, design, and popular culture for us to understand. The poster is a familiar part of our world, and we intuitively understand its role as propaganda, promotion, announcement, or advertisement."
- Reaves' observations are especially relevant for the impressive array of aviation posters in the National Air and Space Museum's 1300+ artifact collection. Quite possibly the largest publicly-held collection of its kind in the United States, the National Air and Space Museum's posters focus primarily on advertising for aviation-related products and activities. Among other areas, the collection includes 19th-century ballooning exhibition posters, early 20th-century airplane exhibition and meet posters, and twentieth-century airline advertisements.
- The posters in the collection represent printing technologies that include original lithography, silkscreen, photolithography, and computer-generated imagery. The collection is significant both for its aesthetic value and because it is a unique representation of the cultural, commercial and military history of aviation. The collection represents an intense interest in flight, both public and private, during a significant period of its technological and social development.
- circa 1939
- Inventory Number
- A19900477000
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- ART-Posters, Original Art Quality
- Medium
- Poster, Advertising, Commercial Aviation
- Dimensions
- 2-D - Unframed (H x W): 62.5 × 99.7cm (2 ft. 5/8 in. × 3 ft. 3 1/4 in.)
- Country of Origin
- France
- See more items in
- National Air and Space Museum Collection
- National Air and Space Museum
- Record ID
- nasm_A19900477000
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv9ff824350-c94e-44b7-9658-629666a2e9e6
