Affiche Bayard – A. Clément Constructeur d’après Weiluc, 1908

H. 113cm, l. : 160cm. Canvas poster. Very good condition. Signed Weiluc, Societé Nouvelle d'Art et Décoration. Gustave Adolphe Clément (1851-1928), known as Clément-Bayard, was one of the pioneers of the Automobile in France. At the turn of the 19th century, he abandoned the construction of bicycles for tricycles and quadricycles before developing his automobile and aeronautical activities until 1922. Adolphe Clément, took the motto of the knight of the same name: "Bayard: the knight without fear or reproach", a character who is said to have saved the town of Mezières from an invasion in the 16th century, where he was originally from. The Council of State having accepted the change of his patronymic, Clément's cars were then marketed as "Bayard A. Clément constructeur" associated with the knight's motto "sans peur et sans reproche". The first car bearing the Clément name dates from 1897, but it was in Levallois-Perret that his factories prospered. Built on the Quai Michelet in 1903, the factory quickly became the largest in France, in 1904! The factory, considered as a masterpiece of industrial architecture, was sold to André Citroën in 1921, which he devoted from 1948 to 1988 to the assembly of the Citroën 2CV. These mythical buildings were sold to the city of Levallois for demolition in 1988, to make way today for housing buildings.