Air France, Guy Georget In-Flight Menu Art 1959

This stylish menu cover for service aboard Air France in 1959 is by the highly regarded French artist and graphic designer Guy Georget (1911-1992).

His influences were said to have been Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. They revolutionized early 20th century art by co-founding the Cubism movement between 1907 and 1914.

Breaking from traditional artistic perspective, Cubism portrayed subjects or objects in geometric forms and muted colors, presenting them from multiple viewpoints to convey greater context and motion.

Best known for his vibrant illustrations for Air France, Georget was commissioned by the airline when it introduced the Caravelle and Boeing 707 jets to their fleet. "The two best jets on the world's biggest network" was the new slogan. In the 1960s he was further commissioned to create travel posters for Air France destinations worldwide. These original travel posters remain highly collectable today.

Georget also designed railway posters to advertise ‘sleeping car service’, posters for the Philips Electric Co and won the contract to design a logo for the French Postal Service (‘La Poste’).

Not much is known about this talented man, perhaps because he was seen primarily as an ‘ad man.’ However, he also painted in oil and watercolor.

This menu cover in the Cubist-inspired muted color palette shows the prices of the ‘tarif de bord.’

Passengers could buy alcoholic drinks and cigarettes. And, since this was for a French airline, passengers could also buy Christian Dior silk stockings, Hermes scarves and scents from some of the great French perfume houses including Balmain and Rochas.