1912 Gamy Pochoir View of a Hydro Airplane Over the English Channel

This is a 1912 Marguerite 'Gamy' Montaut pochoir view of André Beaumont flying a Donnet-Lévêque seaplane over the English Channel. The image illustrates Buatmont crossing the Channel towards England while French battleships steam in the opposite direction.

Beaumont's Flight

On August 9-10, 1912, Beaumont, a well-known aviation pioneer, flew a Donnet-Lévêque from Paris along the Seine River to Le Havre and then followed the coastline to Boulogne-sur-Mer. The flight was promoted in the French magazine La Vie au Grand Air, with photographs of the flight and a portrait of Beaumont occupying several pages.

André Beaumont

André Beaumont (February 8, 1880 - August 11, 1937), the pseudonym of Jean Louis Conneau, was a French aviation pioneer. He earned a diploma from the École Supérieure d'Aéronautique in 1910, the same year he received his civil pilot's license from the Blériot flying school. In 1911, Beaumont made his name by winning Europe's three most rigorous aeronautical contests. He won the race from Paris to Rome (1,465 kilometers) in May. Then he won the first Circuit d'Europe (Tour of Europe: Paris-Liege-Spa-Utrecht-Brussels-Calais-London-Calais-Paris) in June in a Blériot monoplane. Of the 40 aviators who participated in the Circuit d'Europe, only 9 finished. Finally, he won the Round Britain Race through England and Scotland in July. He was named technical director at seaplane manufacturer Donnet-Lévêque in June 1912. In 1913, he co-founded Franco-British Aviation, an aircraft manufacturer that specialized in building flying boats.

Pochoir

Pochoir is an artistic printing process that combines various styles, including lithography, photography, and engraving. It begins with a découpeur, who studies the original piece meant to be reproduced, analyzing the range of colors. Then, the découpeur creates stencils (between eight and fifteen for basic works and more than forty for complex compositions) from materials such as copper, aluminum, or zinc. The stencils were then passed to coloristes who applied watercolors or gouache in layers. Given the idiosyncrasies of coloristes, even down to the strength of brush strokes, no two pochoirs are identical.

Publication History and Census

This view was created by Marguerite 'Gamy' Montaut and published by Mabileau and Company in 1912. While this piece is not cataloged in OCLC and does not appear to be part of any institutional collections, it does appear on the market from time to time.