Ski du Mont Blanc poster – Edward Lancaster – 1951
Dynamic, geometric-shaped blue and white downhill skier racing down the piste of Mont Blanc wearing a number 1 upon his suit. This French skiing poster was produced for the International Skiing Week which was held in skiing resorts in Chamonix, Les Contamines, St Gervais, Les Houghes and Megeve, between 30th January and 4th February 1951. Known as the Ski du Mont Blanc poster, it was created by the English artist Edward Purser Lancaster.
The first International Winter Sports Week was held in 1907 and has taken place every year in France. Originally the event was known as called Semaine Internationale des Sports d’Hiver. It was a winter multi-sport event held in Chamonix that included Nordik skiing and ice skating competitions.
Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the International Olympic Committee, the forerunner to the Olympics was reluctant to include winter sports in the Olympic Games. However, he finally conceded that all sports should have their place in the Olympic Games. This led to the 1924 International Winter Sports Week being held in association with the IOC and was organized by the French Olympic Committee. The event held at the foot of Mont Blanc in Chamonix, and Haute-Savoie has now officially been retrospectively recognised as the Ist Olympic Winter Games.
Ski du Mont Blanc, precursor to the Winter Olympics
The organisers of the annual International Winter Sports Week were in opposition to the IOC changes. They feared, quite rightly, that an Olympic meeting would harm the traditional Nordic winter sports, such as ice skating and Nordik skiing would be replaced with sports like figure skating and ice hockey that had been introduced into the Summer Olympics in 1908 and 1920 respectively.
With this in mind, and possibly the loss they would suffer in both financially and through tourism, the decision was made to continue the International Winter Sports Week event. The international winter sports event has taken place every year in France, since 1907.
Mont Blanc was first climbed in 1786 by Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard. The climb initiated the new winter sport, mountaineering!
Can you ski on Mont Blanc?
Today the Mont Blanc region still one of the best-known and most popular ski resorts in the world.With its five ski resorts, Grands Montets, Les Houches, La Flegere, Le Tour/Balme and Le Brevent, Mont Blanc offers superb facilities for the perfect holiday.
The region is now a major tourist destination, drawing in over six million visitors per year. It provides a wide range of opportunities for outdoor recreation and activities including hiking, rock climbing, mountaineering and, as can be seen in this vintage winter sports poster, skiing.
In 2019 an original of this poster was on sale for £2,750.
Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as a fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.
The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a bargain of print and frame for a great price.