Unlabelled supplementary sketches — two automotive silhouette studies (1940)

In this document

These two sheets contain no legible transcribed text: the bulk of the information comes from the description of the sketches themselves.

Page 15 — profile with human figure

The drawing shows the profile (right side) of an automobile with a very rounded body, with an aerodynamic silhouette: curved roofline, windshield, two wheels drawn as concentric circles, and a horizontal line probably corresponding to the ground line p. 15. A human figure in profile (head and bust, long hair) is visible inside the vehicle, as well as oblique construction lines crossing the cabin and short cross-hatched lines at the rocker panel p. 15.

Page 16 — streamlined silhouette, difficult to decipher

The second sketch presents a comparable silhouette: streamlined body, pontoon type, with a continuous roof curve from the windshield to the rear, a trapezoidal side window, and two rounded wheel arches p. 16. A diagonal line crosses the cabin from the rocker panel, with no identifiable function. The paper, folded in two, bears a small handwritten annotation at the bottom right, deemed illegible; it seems to contain numbers or letters, but no content can be drawn from it with certainty p. 16.

Context

These sketches belong to a set dated 1940, a period when Paul Magès, then at Citroën, was working in particular on models and small vehicles (see the 1940 folder on the pedal car project).

It is well known that the 1930s-1940s saw the development, in the automotive industry in general, of aesthetic and technical research around aerodynamics and "streamlined" or "pontoon" bodies, which inspired many designers and engineers of the time — Citroën was no exception, although nothing in the document allows these sketches to be linked to a specific Citroën project.

Archivist's perspective

These two sheets probably relate to form research exercises, rather than technical plans: the absence of dimensions, legends, and the presence of a human figure on page 15 suggest an intention of overall representation or scale rather than an execution drawing.

The stylistic kinship between the two silhouettes (rounded lines, curved roof, similar wheel arches) suggests that they are variants of the same graphic research, perhaps linked to the small car mentioned in the calculation notes on the pedal car or the dimensioned sketches of general vehicle layout, dated the same year, without being able to state this with certainty in the absence of a legend.

The illegible handwritten annotation on page 16 remains an unusable lead: it could refer to a file reference, like the sheet bearing the mention "1575", but no connection can be established here.