ERVINE METZL (1899-1963) BY THE NORTH SHORE LINE. 1923.
41 1/4x27 1/4 inches, 104 3/4x69 1/4 cm. Illinois Litho. Co., Chicago.
Condition B: extensive restored and replaced losses in margins; repaired tears, restored losses, creases and overpainting in margins and image.
In the 1920s, the Chicago train companies, including the North Shore Line, the South Shore Line and the Chicago Rapid Transit Company, "commissioned the city's finest graphic designers to produce advertising posters that encouraged Chicagoans to use rapid transit for more than commuting to work" (www.Chicago-L.org). Although approximately 160 such posters were designed between 1921 and 1929, they are extremely scarce today and seldom come to market. Metzl's work, which bears the influence of the cut-out style of the Beggarstaff Brothers, stood out from the crowd of other young, talented graphic designers involved with this campaign. He designed four posters for the Chicago Rapid Transit and this one for the North Shore Line Railroad. He went on to become an illustrator, designing two covers for Fortune magazine, and authoring the 1963 book The Poster. He was also appointed the Head of the first Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee, established to advise the Postmaster General on improving the design and colors of American stamps, some of which he designed himself. The posters Metzl designed for Chicago transit companies are among the most innovative and graphically sophisticated that were produced in America at that time; the appeal of their clean lines and simple forms endured throughout the subsequent decades. rare. We have found no other copy at auction.