Cyclists racing on a track before a crowd, color lithograph

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Racing cyclists circle a banked wooden track while a crowd fills the stands behind them, the whole scene rendered in bright color lithography. Bicycle racing on velodromes drew large paying audiences in the 1890s, when the safety bicycle had replaced the high-wheeler and cycling became a fashionable sport for both spectators and riders. Posters and prints like this one were often commissioned to advertise races and sell the spectacle to the public, so the image works as both a record of a crowd and a piece of commercial art. Look at the tilted track and the massed spectators to see how the artist tried to convey speed and excitement.

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