Title: Transports Aeriens – Maicon
Artist: Jan
Year of Publication: c. 1924
Publisher:
Language: French
Size:
Index Number: 00308

Description:

Transports Aériens Maïcon was the business enterprise of August Maïcon (1892-1974), daring French aviator and stuntman, and Nice’s hometown hero. Maïcon first gained notoriety with his breathtaking performance at the 1910 Nice Air Show. He continued to wow audiences with daring fetes such as flying his plane underneath a bridge on

Nice’s River Var and parachuting out of an airplane in front of 70,000 spectators in Nice in 1921. Not only was he a pioneer in the field for his risky, aerial stunts, but he was also a pioneer in offering passenger service in France.

This poster advertises Maïcon’s Nice-based Transports Aériens Maïcon, his aerial tourism business. Biplanes, like the ones depicted in this 1924 poster, offered passengers and tourists their baptème d’air (or baptism by air) with its tourisme aérien (air services for tourists). Maïcon’s other enterprise, the Companie Maritime Transports Aérienne (also known as C.M.T.A) offered passenger flights along the French Riviera servicing various cities along the Côte d’Azur, including Marseille, Monte Carlo, and Cannes. Nice was the hub of both operations, as reflected by the two Maïcon warehouses in the background of the poster. Although Maïcon passed away in 1974 he left a historic legacy in Nice and throughout the south of France popularizing passenger aviation travel and later acting as a proponent for the development aviation infrastructure, such as airports, in the region.

This poster is also a notable example of the period’s dominant style, art nouveau. This “ornate decorative style” is largely considered a reaction to the stoicism of centuries of academic art in Europe. The Maïcon logo in the lower right-hand corner of the poster demonstrates characteristic features of the style including “abstract designs and elongated figures.” These organic forms, as exemplified by the Maïcon logo, represent a characteristic theme of art nouveau, “the cult of nature.” This movement towards the organic and the “abandonment” of “straight lines” created not only a distinctive style but a social and artistic “break from the past.” While today it is debatable whether the style is “artsy” or just “kitsch,” it undeniably remains one of the most “immediately recognizable” styles of all time.