From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian.
MOTOR RACING POSTER ART: One of the great pleasures of motoring history is the wonderful posters produced in that golden age of illustration, the 1930s. Nowhere is this more clearly evidenced than in the motor racing posters of that period which were produced by some of the greatest motoring artists of the era.
Automotive art was born with the motor car, and the first Automotive art exhibition was organised by The Automobile Club of France in their Paris headquarters as early as 1905. No fewer than 68 artists displayed their works, among them Ernest Montaut, to whom has fallen the title of 'the father of automobile art'. Montaut died aged 30 but his widow, Marguerite Montaut, a successful artist in her own right, took over her husband's studio and publishing house and produced many fine pieces of automotive art herself.
Other prominent early artists included Réné Vincent who produced outstanding commercial work for Michelin and Peugeot in particular. The Belgian Georges Gaudy was one of the first to depict speed, while the work of Frederick Gordon Crosby and Roy Nockolds' was widely used to illustrate race reports in the popular British weekly motoring magazines.
But for me this automotive poster art saw its apogee in the work of the artists who created the posters for the famous European motor races of the 1930s. The work of Geo Ham is forever linked with the evocative posters for the Monaco Grand Prix, although he was by no means the only artist to be commissioned to produce these posters.
His style was instantly recognisable, and is depicted here on a 1939 poster for the Montlhéry Autodrome just outside Paris. Gordon Crosby's harder, grittier style is well to the fore on Brookland's posters - the poster for the 1000 Miles race being an excellent example.
These posters were often visually spectacular and sometimes took liberties with reality to produce the greatest dramatic effect - perfectly demonstrated by the poster for the 1931 Monza race showing an Alfa Romeo on a stylised banking. The result is simply stunning.
Here in Ireland, several examples of fine poster art were also produced: most notably for the 1930 and 1931 Irish Grand Prix and for the 1938 Cork Grand Prix. Indeed, amongst collectors worldwide, the Irish Grand Prix posters are amongst the most eagerly sought examples of this golden age of motoring posters.