?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
EMIL PREETORIUS (1883-1973) DARMSTADTER FASTNACHTS: ZEITUNG. 1909. 29x17 inches. Hohmann Hofducherei, Darmstadt. Condition B+: creases in margins and image; discoloration in margins. Paper. Emil Pretorius lived to be ninety years old, and his life was filled with academic and artistic achievements. He was a prolific illustrator who along with Paul Roman (the creator of Universe Type) founded the Munich School for Illustration and Book Design, taught in many of Europe's most prominent institutions, and in 1953 was elected as President of the Beaux Arts Academie. He was one of the founding members of Munich's Die Sechs, and he also did a lot of stage design for operas, leading him to become, in 1932, the art director for the Bayreuth Festival. A further aspect of his hyper-active career found him in 1948 elected to the Bavarian senate, and he was a respected Asian arts dealer! Early on in his career he focussed primarily on illustrations, a field in which he was considered to be amongst the best German talents, and his works were regularly featured in Simplissicimus and Jugend. His prominence was exemplified by the fact that an entire issue of Monographien Deutschereklame Kunstler (the Pantheon of advertising art) was dedicated to his work. Preetorius' style could lean towards the overtly cartoon-like, in a manner that could be compared to the work of the French posterist Gustave-Henri Jossot. However Preetorius actually had command of a much more sophisticated use of outlining and representation. This image, for a newspaper published during the carnival in Darmstadt, is boldly colored and appropriately festive (almost balloon-like) and humorous for the event. It is also quite rare, as it is not referred to in Das Fruhe Plakat.
