Cycling/Lautrec/Michaël/Reichel/Zim/Choppy/Simpson/JO/Figaro - Lot 106

Cycling/Lautrec/Michaël/Reichel/Zim/Choppy/Simpson/JO/Figaro. Plate from "Les Maîtres de l'affiche": Les Cycles Michaël (?). This is one of five plates by Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) published in "Les Maîtres de l'affiche". It's a poster project commissioned from the artist by his Anglophile friend, runner, dealer and classist Louis Bouglé (1864-1924), alias L.B. Spoke, who was also a phenomenon in his own right, and not just in the fishing world. This 1896 project for the Simpson chain, rejected, it seems, because of a poorly positioned chain, was nevertheless published in a print run of 200 copies, and fortunately "fished out" from the Masters of the Poster, Simpson evacuated, Michaël playing the prête-nom. He allows us to discover the Buffalo de Neuilly track, dear to Tristan Bernard, and Frantz-Reichel (background), the great journalist timing, and on the left, the Zimmerman-Warburton (ZW) tandem. English manager-slash-lord Choppy Warburton, who also looked after the ci-devant Welshman Jimmy Michaël (1877-1904) in the foreground, opens his bag of tricks, to give his American colt one of his magic vials. Fowler's Liquor, or Elixir of Speed? The track was still king, and sprinters like the great Zim l'Eclair (under contract to Raleigh) shared the first world titles with stayers, sometimes tiny like Jimmy, whose toothpick is a subtle counterpoint to his dantesque Chaine Simpson. Jimmy and Spoke may have been great players, but they are far outshone by Frantz-Reichel (1871-1932) of the "Figaro", who organized the 1924 Paris Olympics! Beautiful olive-green lithograph, canvas-backed. Small loss lower right, small tear upper right. 23,5x32.