Les “Grosses” Voitures Au Salon 1922

Robert Alphonse Collard also known as Robert Lortac or Lortac was a French writer, illustrator, portraitist, animator and art critic. He attended the School of Fine Arts in Paris and started as an illustrator for magazines like “Le Bon Vivant” and “Polichinelle”. In 1916 Collard created his own production company The Lortac, an animation studio where young animators learned their craft and amongst others worked together with the Pathé Company. He also wrote crime and science fiction novels. Collard’s poster takes the term Big Automobiles (Grosses Voitures) to a new level, he introduces automobiles that are greater than life and far larger than the visitors of the 1922 exhibition. The visitors have to climb over the cars with ladders and can so inspect every detail of the cars. To emphasise the seize of the automobiles he has employed a collage technique by making cut outs of all the people and superimposing them on and around the cars creating a field of depth in the poster.