Feb 29, 2024 - Sale 2660

Sale 2660 - Lot 183

Price Realized: $ 7,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

HUGO LAUBI (1888-1959)

ST. MORITZ / JUBILAUMS RENNWOCHE. 1925.


50x35 inches, 127x63½ cm. Gebr. Fretz, Zurich.
Condition B+: repaired tears at edges, some into image; creases and abrasions in margins and image; small loss in upper left margin. Mounted on Japan.

Laubi became Art Director at the Fretz Brothers printing house in 1918, for whom he created numerous posters advertising PKZ and various Swiss travel destinations. He designed this poster in 1924 as a generic image promoting St. Moritz, with a depiction of one of the horse races on the frozen lake which took place annually in the town from the early 20th century until the outbreak of WWII. In at least two subsequent years, the image was reused with overprinting advertising that year's horse races. In 1939, the image of the horses alone, without any background, was also used to promote the race. Laubi's passion for horses in the rest of his life inspired his continued artistic depictions of them, and horses became a recurring motif in his career.

Art of Skiing p. 94, Swiss Winter Sports 51 (var).