Creator | André Le Comte |
Printing year | 1931 |
Sheet size (cm) | 101.5×65 |
Printing technique | Lithograph |
Printer | Wolfsberg |
Condition | A- |
Asking price | 0 CHF |
Categories | Bern(ese Oberland), Switzerland, Winter Posters |
Undoubtedly the most impressive and therefore the most sought-after of all Mürren posters, designed in 1931 by André Le Comte, who was born in Visp (Valais) in 1903 and died in Geneva in 1979; in the early 1930s he opened an advertising agency in Lausanne, which only existed for a few years, which is why we only know of three other posters by him.
This original Mürren poster is not only remarkable for its dramatic depiction of the skier plunging headfirst down the slope in front of what seems to be the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau; the masterful use of the airbrush technique and the pronounced contrasts of light and dark also convey more than just a hint of eeriness.
The reason for the design was probably (although the poster does not explicitly refer to this) the first Mürren staging of the Kandahar Races, which originated in St. Anton in Austria and were named after the English officer and early ski fan Lord Frederick Sleigh Roberts, who was made Earl of Kandahar for his colonial services to the English crown in Afghanistan. However, and to come back to Mürren: These first Kandahar races in Austria were organized by the Kandahar Ski Club – which ten Brits had founded in the Bernese Oberland in 1924.
more about the advent of alpine skiing:
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