Jan 26, 2017 - Sale 2435

Sale 2435 - Lot 15

Price Realized: $ 5,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
HUGO LAUBI (1888-1959) ST. MORITZ / XV. INTERNATIONALE PFERDERENNEN. 1924.
50 1/4x35 inches, 127 1/2x89 cm. Fretz, Zurich.
Condition A-: water stain in lower margin. Framed. Unexamined out of frame.
Laubi, an illustrator and poster designer, 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 since 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.