LEOPOLDO METLICOVITZ (1868-1944) MELE / MODE NOVITÀ. 1910.
79 1/2x56 1/4 inches, 202x143 cm. G. Ricordi & C., Milan.
Condition B / B+: extensive repaired tears, creases and abrasions overall; restored losses, restoration and overpainting in margins and image; vertical and horizontal folds. Two-sheets.
Born in Trieste, Metlicovitz came to Milan and began working for the Ricordi publishing house, where he learned about poster design under the tutelage of Adolfo Hohenstein. Metlicovitz quickly became a master of graphic design in his own right becoming one of the preeminent Italian graphic designers of his era. He was incredibly versatile in his craft, and could change his style from tender Art Nouveau imagery to statuesque allegory. Throughout his career he produced numerous posters for commercial advertising, exhibitions, operas and the movie industry. Mele was a department store in Naples which, through their collaboration with Ricordi, became a pioneer of mass advertising, commissioning in total over 180 posters between 1895 and the onset of the First World War. A graphic catalogue of "bourgeois realism," these posters were executed by the finest artists in the Ricordi studios: Metlicovitz, Dudovitch, Laskoff, Beltrami, Villa, Mazza and others. They all promote the high-class standards of the store by showing elegant, well-to-do people in their easy, elegant lives. rare. We could find only one other record of this poster at auction. Ricordi 38, Mele p. 56.