THE GOLDEN AGE OF POSTERS
The Bolaffi poster online auction held 12 - 26 November 2014 focused on the traditional two sections dedicated to movie and advertising posters. The lots of this auction included some early historical 20th century posters, and the brilliant results of the sales confirmed the interest of collectors for what has been called the ‘golden age’ of posters, both in Italy and abroad.
One rare poster, of which until now only a few examples were known, was originally designed by Luigi Bompard for the Giornale d’Italia of Rome. The starting price of this poster was 2,500 euros and it sold for 4,500. The poster wasn’t dated but it isn’t hard to imagine that the editor commissioned it to launch the first issue of the daily paper in 1901 from its offices in Rome in Palazzo Sciarra, a central position overlooking via del Corso. Inspired by the Corriere della Sera format, backed by Sidney Sonnino and Antonio Calandra, both of whom were destined to eventually be elected Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, as well as members of the aristocracy and emerging Roman entrepreneurs, the paper had been established as a more liberal form of expression for the historical right wing, the minority in the new Zanardelli government. To launch the paper Bompard, who was from Bologna but of French origin, portrayed a ‘Parisian’ interior scene set against the backdrop of an almost impressionist theatre showing two couples, the men (one was also an officer) were immersed in the papers they were reading while their ladies looked on. The look of these ladies is one of admiration and approval, making the protagonists of the scene the ideal model of the general public, traditionalist, reactionary and deep-rooted in society, the public the paper was aiming for as its target.
Another lot that sold for 3,500 euros, well over its starting price of 1,000, was the poster designed by Adolfo Hohenstein for the fourth triennial fine arts exhibition held at the Brera Academy of Milan in autumn 1900. Since the early 800’s the Brera exhibitions were held on a yearly basis showing works by both Academy students and other artists. Starting in 1891 however, the exhibitions were held every three years and to promote the exhibition of 1900, a year of great symbolic value, the academy contacted one of the most famous poster designers in the world to create a dedicated allegory of art, portraying a white woman being offered gifts by admirers as proof of their creativity. Hohenstein’s most famous work in fact dates to the late 19th and early 20th century and the artist produced other highly successful advertisements that very same year, posters that were destined to become icons of major international events of the time, such as the posters for exhibitions and other events in Monaco and for the Puccini’s first showing of Tosca on 14 February at the Costanzi Theatre of Rome.
The poster for the Italian operetta The Mikado by the English composer Arthur Sullivan, designed by an anonymous poster artist and printed in Florence also belongs to this early 20th century cultural context. The success of the lot, with a starting price of 250 euro and sold for almost ten times that at 2,375 euros, was almost certainly influenced by the fact that although Sullivan is not that well known in Italy, he is however one of the most famous playwrights of the English-speaking world, and is especially well known for his theatrical works in collaboration with the librettist William S. Gilbert; as Gilbert & Sullivan they produced masterpieces such as The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance and many more. The fame of these works was so great that in 1881 the ‘Savoy Theatre’ was built in London specifically to show the plays of Gilbert & Sullivan and for many decades, as well as performing hundreds of shows all over Europe and America, they became the model on which the major theatres of Broadway based their shows.
By Alberto Ponti
One rare poster, of which until now only a few examples were known, was originally designed by Luigi Bompard for the Giornale d’Italia of Rome. The starting price of this poster was 2,500 euros and it sold for 4,500. The poster wasn’t dated but it isn’t hard to imagine that the editor commissioned it to launch the first issue of the daily paper in 1901 from its offices in Rome in Palazzo Sciarra, a central position overlooking via del Corso. Inspired by the Corriere della Sera format, backed by Sidney Sonnino and Antonio Calandra, both of whom were destined to eventually be elected Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, as well as members of the aristocracy and emerging Roman entrepreneurs, the paper had been established as a more liberal form of expression for the historical right wing, the minority in the new Zanardelli government. To launch the paper Bompard, who was from Bologna but of French origin, portrayed a ‘Parisian’ interior scene set against the backdrop of an almost impressionist theatre showing two couples, the men (one was also an officer) were immersed in the papers they were reading while their ladies looked on. The look of these ladies is one of admiration and approval, making the protagonists of the scene the ideal model of the general public, traditionalist, reactionary and deep-rooted in society, the public the paper was aiming for as its target.
Another lot that sold for 3,500 euros, well over its starting price of 1,000, was the poster designed by Adolfo Hohenstein for the fourth triennial fine arts exhibition held at the Brera Academy of Milan in autumn 1900. Since the early 800’s the Brera exhibitions were held on a yearly basis showing works by both Academy students and other artists. Starting in 1891 however, the exhibitions were held every three years and to promote the exhibition of 1900, a year of great symbolic value, the academy contacted one of the most famous poster designers in the world to create a dedicated allegory of art, portraying a white woman being offered gifts by admirers as proof of their creativity. Hohenstein’s most famous work in fact dates to the late 19th and early 20th century and the artist produced other highly successful advertisements that very same year, posters that were destined to become icons of major international events of the time, such as the posters for exhibitions and other events in Monaco and for the Puccini’s first showing of Tosca on 14 February at the Costanzi Theatre of Rome.
The poster for the Italian operetta The Mikado by the English composer Arthur Sullivan, designed by an anonymous poster artist and printed in Florence also belongs to this early 20th century cultural context. The success of the lot, with a starting price of 250 euro and sold for almost ten times that at 2,375 euros, was almost certainly influenced by the fact that although Sullivan is not that well known in Italy, he is however one of the most famous playwrights of the English-speaking world, and is especially well known for his theatrical works in collaboration with the librettist William S. Gilbert; as Gilbert & Sullivan they produced masterpieces such as The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance and many more. The fame of these works was so great that in 1881 the ‘Savoy Theatre’ was built in London specifically to show the plays of Gilbert & Sullivan and for many decades, as well as performing hundreds of shows all over Europe and America, they became the model on which the major theatres of Broadway based their shows.
By Alberto Ponti