As there was no colour photography in the early days of the car, illustrators were called upon to depict the car in colour. And the results were often beautiful works of art.
In its early days, the car was a luxury product. It was new, expensive and designed to impress. All the advertising to market the phenomenon focused on style, class and exclusivity.
The beautiful brochures printed 100 years ago were designed in this spirit. Beautiful thick covers of shredded paper, logos printed in profile in the paper, gold borders and a string in the middle with a stylish piece of silk attached. And in and on these leaflets, also at Renault, the finest representations of the car in its environment or with its splendidly dressed users. Functional automotive art to attract attention and, above all, to cultivate an image among potential customers.
Photos: Miniature scenes from the everyday life of a new Renault and its owner. A lorry on the quayside of the Seine, a limousine in the heart of Paris or a delivery van in the countryside.
Drawings were used until the 1970s, but the style changed. Renault was particularly prolific in this field between the First World War and the early 1930s. The thicker the brochure and the more expensive the car, the more elaborate the art. However, there are also very small booklets where each page contains a miniature work of art.
This often starts with the initials, the first letter on the page. You can get away with printing them a bit larger, but in many Renault brochures from those years, the first letter is beautifully decorated with a drawing. The drawings are in black and white as well as in colour. Today's digital capabilities are vast, but about 100 years ago it was quite a process to design and print a leaflet in colour.
Photo: The cover of a modestly sized brochure for the 1919 12 HP shows this almost painterly scene. The lady has just stepped out of her Renault and is being charmingly greeted by her host.
Left: On the cover of the 1925 Renault 10CV brochure, an artist has depicted a bustling port city. The car plays the leading role. Right: The luxury of the Renault 40 CV was, of course, also evident in the pictures in the brochure. Both the exterior and the interior are shown in colour.
Some of the drawings printed on the following pages were made in fictional locations. But there are also drawings where the location is recognisable. For example, Louis Renault's house in Herqueville, the headquarters in Billancourt or the brand's showroom on the Champs Elysées. Illustrations can be sumptuous or, on the contrary, reduced to their essence, including for brochures for trucks and vans.
Above: a Renault 40CV in front of Louis Renault's house in Herqueville.
Photo: Renault's 6-cylinder models (1933) were presented as the quintessential travel car, so it's only fitting that the brochure should include a work of art that conveys a welcoming atmosphere.
Left: On the cover of Renault's 1909 brochure, the brand still paid tribute to the sporting victories of a few years earlier. Right: The first Renault agricultural tractor appeared in 1919. One of the first brochures shows this new phenomenon, the Renault GP, with black and white and colour drawings on the cover.
Left: The style of the extravagant 1930s is illustrated by a miniature from the Monastella brochure of late 1929.
Right: A woman preparing for a trip in the back seat of a 1929 Vivastella.