Coloured print showing the Montgolfière balloon launched from Château de la Muette, 21 November 1783

Print showing the Montgolfière balloon launched from Château de la Muette on 21 November 1783, carrying François Laurent d’Arlandes and Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier. Portrait-oriented, hand-coloured etching on paper. The print's composition is framed by a simple black border and dominated by the balloon itself, which is roughly oval in shape and tapered at its summit. Silhouetted against a plain background, it is shown about to ascend with its two passengers from a small, walled arena where it has been filled with hot air from a fire burning underneath. Various onlookers observe from the arena walls and the ground below. The scene is enhanced with watercolour, the balloon's entire surface elaborately ornamented with mostly red and gold decorations arranged in horizontal bands against a blue ground. A paragraph of text printed in French below the composition's border is titled 'Extrait du Journal du 21 Novembre 1783' and describes the event together with technical information about the balloon.

On 21 November 1783, two men made history as the first humans ever to ascend to the skies in untethered flight. The marquis François Laurent d’Arlandes and physician Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier performed the remarkable feat in the magnificently decorated hot air balloon shown in this print. They can be seen, hats in hand, leaning out from opposite sides of the balloon’s gallery as it prepares to launch, while spectators watch from below.

Hot air balloons such as this became known as ‘Montgolfières’ after their inventors, the brothers Jacques-Etienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, who were paper manufacturers from southern France. They had performed their first demonstration only a few months earlier, launching a paper balloon from their hometown of Annonay on 4 June 1783. Shortly afterwards on 19 September, a sheep, a rooster, and a duck became the first living passengers to fly in a hot air balloon. They ascended in a Montgolfière launched from the Palace of Versailles, in a spectacular event witnessed by King Louis XVI, Queen Marie-Antoinette, and a huge crowd. Following the success of this flight and the safe return of all the animals on board, manned trials were conducted in tethered balloons, all leading up to the momentous occasion shown in this print.

d’Arlandes and de Rozier launched from another royal palace, the Château de la Muette near Paris. The print shows that this association with the monarchy was vividly reinforced by the balloon’s livery in the French royal colours of blue and gold featuring various royal symbols. Most prominent is the balloon’s central, widest band of decoration, bearing a design of sun face motifs alternating with golden, intertwined letter L’s – the cipher of Louis XVI. Lavish embellishments continue above and below. Above is a narrow band with pictorial representations of the signs of the zodiac, bordered with decorations of golden fleur-de-lis above and white and gold tasselled hangings below, while a relatively simple gold band encircles the balloon near its peak. Underneath the balloon's central band is a more elaborate gold border, below which are decorations of red and gold swags suspended between golden lions' heads, and lower still a design of eagles draped with golden garlands encircling the balloon near its base. The balloon's gallery, meanwhile, is ornamented with red and gold swags or drapery.