Daniel Rebour - Illustrator. Who's your favourite cycling illustrator/Cartoonist?

[Canuk]

I am a huge fan of Daniel Rebour's amazing draftsmanship. Its a shame there is not a decent coffee table book currently available of his work...

There is this one; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rebour-Rob-Van-Plas/dp/1892495813 ..but it is out of print, expensive, and reviewers note the paper quality/printing is poor, the last thing his fine illustration work deserves!

Yes, I'm amazed there isn't a heavy tome dedicated to his work. He pretty much catalogued and defined graphic art in cycling from 1950-1975, without any equal. And as said up thread, it was not particularly well paid work, the scribblers who did the annotations apparently were unionised and got three times as much as Rebour per item. Poor fella, I just imagine him ink drawing by candlelight in some dingey top floor one bedroom flat in a rougher arrondissement of Paris...

 

[Canuk]

There's a few Japanese coffee table books feature Rebour drawings, but nothing definitive. I remember Blackbirds.org having quite a few pages dedicated to him. Oh, and a certain Ukrainian outfit is making good on eBay with A2 and A1 enlargements of his Campagnolo group set posters. Such is life!

 

[Canuk]

Also Frank Patterson the great British cycling illustrator who did a tremendous amount of work for the CTC magazine.

 

[Canuk]

There's been an illustrated poster for the Spanish Vuelta every year since it's Inception.

 

[The History Man]

 

[Woz]

Yes, I'm amazed there isn't a heavy tome dedicated to his work. He pretty much catalogued and defined graphic art in cycling from 1950-1975, without any equal. And as said up thread, it was not particularly well paid work, the scribblers who did the annotations apparently were unionised and got three times as much as Rebour per item. Poor fella, I just imagine him ink drawing by candlelight in some dingey top floor one bedroom flat in a rougher arrondissement of Paris...

Funny that. Agree that not much is out there even on the French forums about himself, but the work produced is so vast over a long period - right up to the bitter end of the French bicycle industry in the mid-80s. However I kind of dispute these dates looking in much more recent VAR catalogues, but I have no evidence except the catalogues but his style is so unique for showing complex things.

I actually imagined a bit the opposite. Someone out in the field, someone gathering, having parts in his hands, going to shows, but also having a few "apprentices" / "buddies" to actually do some of the photography, preparations and even drawing. As much an artist, engineer type , cyclist, as well as an entrepreneur. I don't know just a very rough guess or perhaps wishful thinking where merit is deserved.

It's both the scale and quality of the output that amazes me. When I was restoring the early 50s EdN it was really hard finding truths in photographs, but the quantities of his published discovered drawings just seemed endless and wonderfully detailed for a bike restorer.

I've seen those saddles in the flesh too. They are top notch, beautifully made, and the right amount of subtle discretion.

 

[The History Man]

 

[Canuk]

Quite a good archive of Rebour here: http://www.blackbirdsf.org/rebour/

 

[Canuk]

He was friends with Rene Herse, the detail in his drawings of complete bikes is impressive.

 

[Canuk]

Short, potted history of Rebour:

Daniel Rebour was born in LeHavre c. 1908 and studied technical illustration in Paris, graduating in 1928 and soon finding work as a test rider and illustrator for a motorcycling magazine. During the Second World War he illustrated car parts catalogues and then moved to Biarritz. Directly after the war a friend approached him about joining a new magazine, Le Cycle, as an illustrator.

The first issue ran in September 1945, with the magazine appearing as a weekly, then bi-weekly and finally monthly. It continued until the collapse of the French industry after the mid-1970s bike boom, with the last number coming out in December 1975. The detailed drawings continued but now mainly found themselves in catalogues, including those produced for André Bertin, Réne Herse and the VAR tool company.

Bertin imported components from several Japanese manufacturers, including Shimano and SR, and so the selection in the book extends beyond classic European products to include the then-new ones from Asia. Rebour published into the 1980s and passed away in 1991.