Joys of the Road, Splash — Fabiano

A lively early twentieth-century chromolithograph capturing the casual mischief of motoring as a driver soaks unsuspecting pedestrians on a country road.

Drawn by Fabien Fabiano. Published in La Vie Parisienne, Paris, c. 1920.

Fabien Fabiano was a prolific French illustrator whose drawings for popular magazines distilled the rhythms of Belle Époque and inter-war life. This sheet belongs to the genre of motoring satire that flourished in La Vie Parisienne, where the new road-going classes were skewered for their mannerisms and minor cruelties.

Chromolithograph. Sheet size approximately 26.3 × 18.3 cm. Excellent.