Davos, a Winter Resort
| Creator | Walther Koch |
|---|---|
| Printing year | 1910 |
| Printing technique | Lithography |
| Printer | J. E. Wolfensberger Printing Company |
| Condition | |
| Asking price (CHF): | |
| Sheet size (cm) | |
| Categories | Grisons, Swiss, Winter Posters |
Nicht vorrätig
Walther Koch was the first foreigner working in Switzerland to leave lasting traces here with his posters – and what traces they are: His posters, created especially for Davos, are not merely among the best that hung on local streets as well as on ocean liners and in European transport hubs starting in 1906. Above all, they were also designs that belonged to the very first modern Swiss tourism posters ever – free of historicism, folklore, and the endeavor to pack as much information as possible onto a single sheet. Instead: generous abstraction of an already streamlined motif composition, broad expanses of color, clear outlines, strong contrasts.
The fact that this motif, which has been promoting Davos as a winter health resort since 1910, also develops such a powerful tranquility makes it an outstanding work of Swiss poster art—similar to Emil Cardinaux’s Zermatt poster with the mauve sky.
Koch (1875 – 1915), son of a painter, first attended the School of Applied Arts in Hamburg before studying sculpture for three years at the Berlin Academy of Arts starting in 1893 – and realized that applied art was closer to his heart after all. For health reasons, he came to Davos for the first time in 1898, and stayed in 1902. Having already become familiar in Germany with the young generation's aspirations to unite life and art (the Deutscher Werkbund was founded in 1907 – the Swiss Werkbund in 1913), he soon succeeded in being commissioned by the Davos Tourism Association and the still young Ski Association to design posters.
You might also be interested in:
as well as