St. Moritz

Emil Cardinaux's elegant depiction of cross-country skiers and winter guests in horse-drawn sleighs against the backdrop of Piz Albana and Piz Julier is one of those formidable Swiss posters that are gladly referred to as a ‘must-have.« Of course, one certainly doesn't have to have it. But more than a few people—whether collectors of original (Swiss) winter posters or distinguished lovers of the Engadin—would love to own it. On the one hand, it is significantly rarer than Cardinaux's slightly later poster for the St. Moritz Hotel Palace; on the other hand, thanks to the sparse dabs of color that appear all the more vibrant in the magnificently snow-covered landscape, one can literally feel the biting cold.

The Bernese (1877 – 1936) initially began «something proper» at his father's behest – studying law – but simultaneously took lessons at the local art school before studying for nearly three years at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts under the German Symbolist master Franz von Stuck. Cardinaux's Zermatt poster from 1908 featuring the glowing Matterhorn made him somewhat immortal – although the motif, originally designed for an advertising card, was created as early as 1906 and only appeared as a tourism poster thanks to the initiative of the printer Johann Edwin Wolfensberger.

Nevertheless, together with the Basel artist Burkhard Mangold, Cardinaux was a co-founder and pioneer of the modern Swiss poster, even if Geneva artists in particular had recognized the signs of the times a little earlier, though their output soon dried up.

more about Cardinaux and his Zermatt poster:
Swiss Federal Railways