ADOLFO HOHENSTEIN (1854-1928) FIAMMIFERI SENZA FOSFORO. Circa 1910. 24 x 12 3/4 inches. Doyen Di L. Simondetti, Torino. Condition A-: punch hole and loss in upper margin. Hohenstein spent his whole career with Ricordi the great Italian publishing company. He began working there in 1889, designing sheet music covers for operas. Shortly thereafter, he became art director of the firm and began to design posters. After work in the early 1890s, which clearly shows the influence of Jules Cheret, Hohenstein's work, incorporating elements of Mucha's art, began to find its own flamboyant style. Considered to be "the 'father of the Italian poster' and a leading proponent of the Italian Art Nouveau movement, known as Stile Liberty, Hohenstein utilized dramatic effects of light, space and color to offer a graphic intensity that appealed perfectly to the Italian temperament" (www.internationalposter.com/it-text.cfm). This image, employing vivid colors and allegorical characters, is typical of his superb handling of even the most mundane items. The poster, promoting a brand of safety matches, is a brilliant graphic treatment playing with light and shadow effects, not to mention the larger moral themes of the forces of light banishing the forces of darkness. This is the smaller format. Weill p. 85 (var), Manifesto p. 144.
