At the Autopian One Year Anniversary car meetup at Porsche Santa Clarita this past Saturday, so so many cars and people showed up, it was absolutely astounding and humbling. And, sure, maybe they came, along with that helicopter, more for the huge Cars and Coffee and the big Porsche meetup, but still, it felt like thousands of people came to see us. And one of those people was an Autopian member named Wade to drove his Jaguar XJ6 Vanden Plas class-mobile all the way up from around San Diego, and showed me this amazing brochure. Part of why it’s amazing is because, somehow, it references an old French artist that carmakers like Renault seem to love, too.
Yes, that Jaguar brochure sure seems to be inspired by the works of Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), who made paintings that look like this:
That’s Exotic Landscape from 1910, and you can see its influences in both that Jag brochure and this 1983 Renault ad:
Here’s the Jaguar ad, larger:
How is it that this painter of fanciful, imagined, and exuberant jungles somehow comes up more than once for carmaker advertising? Rousseau had been dead over 70 years by the time these ads came out, and I don’t recall a huge spike in Rousseau interest in the 1980s. Maybe there was? I was a dumb kid playing Atari Pac-Man, so it’s possible my finger wasn’t exactly on the pulse in that era.
Still, thank you for coming all the way out, Wade!
We’ll have more from the meetup soon! Until then, here’s a taste:
The Autopian is one year old! Lucky you if you got to attend yesterday's C&C at Porsche Santa Clarita to celebrate. More of Saturday's shenanigans to come … pic.twitter.com/1udDSKUm9m
— The Autopian (@the_autopian) April 3, 2023
…okay, one more:
Fascinating Beetle trivia and withering sarcasm–an unbeatable combo! More fun from The Autopian One-Year Anniversary car show at Santa Clarita Porsche ???? pic.twitter.com/nmi2ffk2JH
— The Autopian (@the_autopian) April 3, 2023
It’s so great that you guys get to guide your own destiny. It’s hard to imagine how amazing Autopian will become as the years progress. You humans are the best. Keep not kink shaming
Finally, one year! Now you can go out and get some jobs and pay your own damn way. Maybe a paper route, lawn mowing, baby sitting. Or if you wait another six months you would be old enough to get a gig working for Hyundai in Alabama.
Kids these days. They don’t even try…
Fun show! Hopefully I won’t run out of gas a block away at the next one.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen him in a photo, but I thought that was the estimable Graverobber at first glance.
Poaching him from the Herb would be a good thing.
1st congratulations on Autopian’s 1st anniversary to Beau, Torch & David, Cheers to many more to come!
Re: 1st video @Torch…
Who is Ferdinand “Pike” :-), living in the US I’m kind of surprised I’ve never heard someone pronounce it that way…
of course I suspect that has more to do with the fact that the Piech family regardless of their powerful position in the auto world are still relatively unknown to the average American
I do seem to remember Rousseau posters being a thing back in the 80’s. Before dorm rooms switched to Klimt.
We were pretty quiet students, we have Rothko posters.
That is some pure uncut Torch on the Twitter vid.
This is Wade with the Jag. What a great day! It was genuinely a pleasure to meet you and David and Beau. I’m glad you got to see the brochure; I had a feeling it might provide some Cold Start fodder after your previous Rousseau feature.
The ’64 VW Bug you featured in the video was just perfect. I was talking to the owner for a bit, especially about the trailer. The dual mount to the rear and using the pivot wheel for turns is quite unusual for automotive usage, although I’ve seen similar things for bicycle/motorcycle applications. One of the owner’s concerns is that replacement rear wheels are unobtanium.
Has it really been a year already? It only feels like 6 mos max.
No its been 113 years, he died in 1910.
Congrats on the year. I’ve totally enjoyed it.
I’m shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YOU, that Torch talked minutia about Beetle lighting.