EMIL CARDINAUX (1877-1936) ZERMATT / MATTERHORN SCHWEIZ. 1908.

40x28 inches, 102x71 cm. J.E. Wolfensberger, Zurich.

Condition A / A-: minor creases in margins and image; minor abrasions at edges; tipped down at edges. Paper. Framed.

"In the beginning was the Matterhorn" (Schweiz p. 50). The extraordinary contours of this legendary mountain have appeared in countless posters. Many Art Nouveau artists depicted the mountain, and their images reflect the realistic, academic representations that were popular at the time. Cardinaux's image of the dawn-drenched Matterhorn, exceptional and revolutionary in its design, smashed the old mold. Pure, bold, simple and strong, this poster adapts the style of the German Sachsplakat (Object Poster) from before the First World War, and presages the Swiss Realism of the early 1920s. "For the first time a graphic approach was taken to the problem posed by a poster" (Weill p. 122). "The Swiss poster can be said to have been born with the creation of the Zermatt" (ibid). "The poster stands out above the common ruck [the typical Swiss poster of the time] just as the mountain soars above the landscape" (Schweiz p. 52). It is the first and perhaps the finest object poster within the travel poster genre. Cardinaux 14, Weill p. 120, Miroir 1, Alps 68, Margadant 1, Swiss Tourist 67, Schweiz / Plakat 1, Le Coultre p. 55, Voyage, p. 24, Swiss Art Nouveau 82, The Poster 79, Paradis p. 163, Art of Skiing p. 103, Plakat Kunst p. 71, Alpi / Manifesti 68, Posters and Their Designers p. 77.