Rebour: The Bicycle Illustrations of Daniel Rebour, chronicles the life of the man who is widely regarded as the most brilliant technical illustrator of the modern bicycle. The book is devoted to the art of cycling illustrations as much as it is to the man who created them.
Looking at cycling books and magazines from the mid-1940s through the mid-1970s, one can't help but be impressed by the technical illustrations used during this period, which were so much clearer than the photo graphs used in later years. Many of those drawings are signed with the initials "DR" or "D Rebour."
Captured within these pages are the background stories and reproductions of the actual drawings created by the man whose work was the singular source and primary inspiration for millions of bicyclists around the world.
After an education in "Decorative Arts," he was hired as test rider, writer, and illustrator for a French motorcycle journal in 1930. After World War II, he was recruited as illustrator and writer for the newly formed bicycle trade journal Le Cycle, and most of the illustrations in this volume originated in that publication.
After the demise of Le Cycle, in 1975, he transferred to L'Officiel du Cycle, but from then on, most of his illustrations appeared in bicycle product catalogues and advertisements. A keen cyclist himself, he participated in numerous randonneur (long distance touring) events, riding solo or tandem with his wife Simone. Rebour died in 1991 at age 82.