Painting on two wheels

This weekend, the Tour de France is in the midst of its mountain stages in the Alps. To mark that, this article looks all too briefly at paintings of cycling.

Bicycles and cycling started to catch on in the middle of the nineteenth century, and by 1868 cyclists were racing against one another in parks in Paris.

Édouard Manet (1832–1883), Le Vélocipédiste (The Cyclist) (1871), oil on canvas, 53 × 20 cm, Private collection. Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons.

Manet’s remarkably early oil sketch Le Vélocipédiste (The Cyclist) from 1871 is probably the first depiction of a cycle by a major painter. Others like Robert Alott followed, still on their ‘penny farthings’ On the Beach at Ostende (1888), below.

Robert Alott (1859–1910), On the Beach at Ostende (1888), oil on panel, 26 x 53 cm, Private collection. Wikimedia Commons.

Alexey Korzukhin (1835-1894) Petrushka Goes! (1888), oil on canvas, dimensions not known…