Antiquariat Daniela Kromp
PHOTOGRAPHY – ENTERTAINMENT. 
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[Anonymous]: [Flying over Paris]. Large-sized photograph with hand-colouring, contemporarily mounted to canvas and fixed to strainer bar. France, c. 1920. 61 x 50,5 cm (oblong).
The photograph shows a young couple, both with a radiant smile, seemingly sitting in an open airplane flying over Paris. In fact, they are standing behind a photo stand-in. Such photo stand-ins can be found until today as fairground attractions, or at tourist traps for creating individual souvenirs. "The use of an image on a board that could be held up as a foreground below the chin was patented by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge in 1874. The photo stand-in as it is widely known today predates this version, which Coolidge acknowledges in his patent. (…) The earliest inspiration might be tourist attractions in 19th century Egypt, where a face hole was cut out of a sarcophagus and a sphinx statue (probably plaster reproductions) so that a photo can be taken where the tourist pretends to be a mummy or sphinx" (Wikipedia). – Photocollages and other photographs showing people sitting in open airplanes have also been popular postcard motifs between c. 1910 and 1930, with the earliest example I have been able to find being a picture postcard with a French stamp and postmark from 1909. However large pictures of this size (intended for framing) with the same motif, especially coloured examples, are exceedingly rare. I have been able to trace a black-and-white photography in postcard format using the same photo stand-in as in our picture, inscribed to verso: "Souvenir Paris Janvier 1921" (Paris Souvenir January 1921). – Provenance: Berlin, through the trade. – Minor rubbing to surface of the photograph’s outer margins, small damage to upper right corner. Else fine. – Cf. Clément Chéroux and Ute Eskildsen, Frankierte Fantastereien. Das spielerische der Fotografie im Medium der Postkarte, pp. 132-134.
950,- EUR Sachgebiete: Curiosa, Frankreich, Humor, Photographie Kontakt zum
inkl. 7% USt./incl. 7% VAT
