En L'An 2000: Underwater Seagull Fishing, French Futurist Postcard c.1900
From the celebrated 'En L'An 2000' series of French chromolithographic postcards, likely illustrated by Jean-Marc Côté or a contemporary artist working in the same whimsical retro-futurist tradition, this card imagines future humans in brass-helmeted diving suits fishing from beneath the ocean surface — with lines cast upward to snag seagulls above the waves. The composition blends humor with genuine imaginative speculation, rendered in the warm, flat-color chromolithographic style typical of Belle Époque futurism.
More Jules Verne whimsy than H.G. Wells menace — the absurd premise of seagull fishing in diving suits gives it genuine charm and mild delirium, but the playful tone keeps it firmly in illustrated-humor territory rather than full pulp spectacle.
“EN L'AN 2000 - Fishing for Seagulls”
