Davos

At first glance, a lovely Davos poster, because who doesn’t think a Bambi is cute? At second glance, however, it’s a, well… botch. And one that raises a few puzzles in terms of dating: the year of printing is always given as 1935 or 1953. An unusually large discrepancy, which leads to the assumption that the cause was a simple typo in the distant past, which was then adopted and circulated by others.

1935 is more likely, but will also be incorrect, as Leo Keck, who was responsible for the coloring and probably also the design, only started working as an in-house graphic artist at the Fretz brothers’ print shop at the end of 1937. He had previously held the same position at Zurich competitor Wolfensberger, which would rule out the possibility that the sheet was printed before 1938.

On the other hand, what would suggest that it was created after the Second World War: It’s undoubtedly an offset print. Although the Fretz brothers purchased an offset machine as early as 1921, it was used exclusively for small-format posters for decades – as was customary in Switzerland and in contrast to developments in Germany, Italy and the USA. In Switzerland, posters based on photographs were occasionally produced as lithographs until well into the 1940s, but mostly using gravure printing. Offset was not used in these cases until around 1950. So printed in 1953 after all?

Almost certainly not, as the poster is based on a montage of a photograph by Emil Meerkämper. This fits in with the second half of the 1930s, when the first posters appeared in Switzerland, designed by Walter Herdeg and Herbert Matter in particular with the help of one or even several edited photos – a new approach in this country that seemed extremely fresh and modern, caused a sensation and thus aroused the interest of other advertisers.

This does not rule out a year of origin after 1950, but (and here we are back to the second glance): With this Davos poster, the creators have overestimated themselves or rather underestimated the difficulties of photomontage in terms of focus, perspective and attention to detail to such an extent that it must be an awkward work from the early days of this style. The fawn, for example, seems to float above the flower meadow like a foreign body. Or the one huge, towering hogweed: The proportions are not right either in relation to the flowers in the foreground or in relation to the deer. This leads to the assumption that Keck supplemented Emil Meerkämper’s photograph of the landscape with the farmhouse on Gemsberg (left) with a not particularly carefully selected photograph of a flowering summer meadow (right), before also squeezing in a photo of a deer to catch the eye.

All in all, it was probably the case that Leo Keck and the print shop dared to make an attempt here at the end of the 1930s in order to gain experience: an attempt with photomontage as well as with offset printing. An undertaking that went badly wrong in terms of the montage and, above all, because of the requirement that it should not be recognizable as such. Why those responsible at the Davos Tourist Office nevertheless had the design executed remains their secret.

Incidentally, Emil Meerkämper, who stayed in Davos in 1900 as a young engineer from the Ruhr region after a stay at a health resort and became one of the pioneers of Swiss landscape photography, died in 1948. Now, in principle, it would of course have been possible for one of his old photos to be used after his death; however, the photograph is not a famous masterpiece, so there would undoubtedly have been plenty of alternatives. And nobody would have had to deal with legal issues either.

So, is the world a better place now? Rather not. But anyone who likes Original Posters or has an appreciation of economic history and the advertising industry will probably appreciate such an insight into the background and conditions under which commercial art was created. This does not mean that it has become any easier to find a buyer for this poster in view of these explanations. So to conclude: All the conjecture and speculation doesn’t change the fact that this is a very, very sweet poster – ideal for a child’s bedroom, for example.

maybe of interest as well – another cute original poster:

Gstaad