?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
ADOLFO HOHENSTEIN (1854-1928)
"PRIMAVERA" VEGLIONE DELLA FAMIGLIA ARTISTICA. 1898.
112x18 1/2 inches, 284 1/2x47 cm. G. Ricordi & C., Milan. Condition B: replaced losses, repaired tears, creases and overpainting along seams and horizontal folds. Four-sheets. Framed.
Born in Russia to German parents, Hohenstein studied art in Vienna before settling in Milan. He began working with Ricordi, the great Italian publishing company in 1889, designing sheet music covers for operas. Shortly thereafter, he became Art Director of the firm and began to design posters himself. Working for him at Ricordi were among the most famous Italian poster artists of the era, such as Dudovich, Mauzan and Metlicovitz, whose posters reflect Hohenstein's influence as one of the masters of the Golden Age of Italian posters, "from obvious stylistic floral influences of French Art Nouveau and the German Jugendstil" (Manifesti Italiano, p. 114). Hohenstein was invited to work outside of Italy, in France as well as Belgium, where he designed at least two posters printed by the Belgian printing house J.L. Goffart. The Liberty Style at the turn of the century was triumphant in Italy, while the fascination for posters had begun to wane in France. This playful image advertises one of the Milan Carnivals that were fashionable in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, usually a week or so after the Venice Carnival in February or March. Many of these balls and celebrations were organized by municipal organizations or the "Milanese artistic family" - this one at the Teatro Lirico. A rare poster, in an unusual narrow format; another copy can be found in the Collezione Salce of the Museo Nationale in Treviso. Not in Ricordi.
